Unemployment About to Rise Further

Apollo Chief Economist

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act gives 60 to 90 days advance notice in cases of plant closings and mass layoffs, and the latest data shows a significant move higher in WARN notices recently, see chart below.

In other words, the WARN data is telling us that more companies are giving advance warnings about plant closings and mass layoffs.

Running a regression using WARN notices to predict unemployment shows that initial jobless claims in October will rise over the coming weeks to a level between 250K and 300K, see chart below.

Rise in WARN notices points to a rise in jobless claims over the coming weeks
Source: Department of Labor, Haver Analytics, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Apollo Chief Economist. Note: The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act helps ensure 60 to 90 days advance notice in cases of qualified plant closings and mass layoffs. WARN factor is the Cleveland Fed estimate for WARN notices.

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