In April, the US unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 percent, up slightly since the start of the year. However, many major companies, including Microsoft and Intel, have announced sweeping layoffs as the Trump administration also laid off thousands of federal workers, many of whom are challenging their dismissal in court.
To examine the question of which US state has seen the highest number of layoffs this year, we will rely on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Each month, the BLS reports the number of workers who were hired, quit their jobs, or were laid off or fired.
Our analysis focuses on involuntary separations, which the BLS categorizes as ‘layoffs and discharges.’ While we can’t distinguish between the two in the data, our primary interest is in layoffs. To work around this, we assume that firings—defined as terminations due to employee conduct—remain relatively constant over time. In contrast, layoffs are more sensitive to economic conditions and are likely to fluctuate accordingly.
This assumption allows us to interpret changes in the total number of involuntary separations as primarily driven by layoffs. For example, between January and March of this year, 22 states saw either no change or a decrease in the number of workers laid off or fired compared to the same period in 2024. Under our assumption, this suggests that the decline is not due to improved employee behavior, but rather to reduced economic pressure to lay off workers in those states during early 2025.
Levels in Kansas (44,000), New Mexico (32,000), and Vermont (13,000) remain unchanged when comparing data from the first three months of the year to the same period in 2024.
The states that have seen the largest decreases in involuntary separation are:
- Florida: -62,000
- Pennsylvania: -46,000
- New York: -43,000
- Minnesota: -16,000
- Alabama: -13,000
- Oklahoma: -13,000
- Oregon: -11,000
- North Carolina: -10,000
- Wisconsin: -8,000
- South Carolina: -7,000.
Which states have seen the greatest increases in layoffs since 2024?
The remaining 27 states and the District of Columbia have all experienced an increase in involuntary separations.
California (+66,000), Texas (+47,000), New Jersey (+46,000), Illinois (+33,000), and Indiana (+33,000) have experienced the largest increases.
However, California and Texas are the two most populous states in the country, so their appearance at the top of the list isn’t necessarily surprising. More workers mean more potential layoffs. Still, the fact that, unlike New York and Florida, involuntary separations have increased in these states could be a warning sign that the labor market is softening and that unemployment may begin to tick up.
When examining the percentage change between 2024 and 2025, Rhode Island has seen the largest increase in layoffs and firings, rising 57.14 percent, from 21,000 between January and March 2024 to 33,000 in 2025. The ten states with the largest percent increases are:
- Rhode Island: 57.14%
- Indiana: 34.38%
- New Jersey: 32.86%
- Massachusetts: 24.76%
- Kentucky: 21.67%
- Ohio: 21.23%
- Illinois: 20.89%
- Colorado: 20.00%
- Georgia: 19.31%
- Michigan: 19.23%.
Which states have seen the largest number of layoffs?
The BLS also tracks the percentage of workers who are laid off or fired in each state. If we assume that most people don’t lose their jobs more than once in three months, we can use this data to see which states have had the highest share of workers laid off or fired since the start of the year. In Rhode Island, around 6.5 percent of the workforce was laid off or fired in the first three months of the year, up from 4.2 percent in 2024. Montana (5.9 percent) and Alaska (5.7 percent), were the only other states that recorded rates that added up to a total over 5 percent.