Texas had the second most layoffs this year. Here’s what it means for Dallas-Fort Worth

DALLAS. In 2023, Texas had the second highest number of layoffs in the nation.

This is reported by CivMetrics, a project of the non-profit Policy Data Institute, which has cataloged mass layoffs in the US using documents filed under the WARN Act.

The WARN law requires companies with 100 or more employees to give 60 days notice of layoffs. Some states do not publish their WARN warnings, and the CivMetrics database and collection of information reflects this.

While Texas comes in second with 4,625 workers, the total number of layoffs is about 40% of California’s layoffs of 11,331. According to CivMetrics, Washington is third with 4,082, New Jersey is fourth with 3,154, and Pennsylvania is fifth since 1997.

Reflecting the plethora of tech layoffs announced over the past few months, Seattle, San Francisco, Redmond, San Diego and Austin are among the top five cities with the most layoffs in 2023.

Richardson in North Texas was not far behind Austin (1,255 people), with 1,165 people laid off, according to CivMetrics. Lancaster (No. 9), Lewisville (No. 19) and Irving (No. 20) also made the top 20 for 2023.

While layoffs are still pending in Texas and beyond, such as those announced by Dell Technologies Inc. from Round Rock and others, the number of vacancies remains steady.

The past three months may have been dominated by high-profile layoffs, recession fears and growing economic uncertainty, but some key metrics are still the same, our sister publication reports. The number of vacancies actually rose in November and continues to fluctuate by almost twice the number of unemployed, writes American City Business Journals. The layoff rate remains stable at 2.7%, although the layoff rate increased from 0.9% to 1%.

According to the CivMetrics database, there were 5,479 layoffs in WARN filings in North Texas last year.

Mortgage companies, along with some categories of distribution and third-party logistics firms, account for the majority of layoffs.

Richardson has had the most layoffs since this time last year, followed by Fort Worth and then Dallas, according to the CivMetrics database. Irving and Plano finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Below you can view the WARN documents cataloged by CivMetrics that hit the region, sorted alphabetically by city. The same gallery is located at the beginning of this story.