WARN Notices Explained: Who Must File, the 60-Day Rule, and How to Read One

Life in the USOct 18, 2026 · 8 min read

When a big employer announces cuts, the first hard numbers often come from a state labor agency's WARN list, not from the company. A notice tells you who is cutting, where, how many people, and roughly when. This guide explains what the law requires, how state laws add to it, where notices are published, and how to read one without over-reading it. Everything here can be tried in our free Layoff Tracker, which collects official WARN notices from eight state agencies and links every row back to its source.

What the federal WARN Act requires

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (29 U.S.C. 2101 and following) and the Department of Labor's regulations at 20 CFR Part 639 set the rules. In short:

• Who is covered. An employer with 100 or more employees, not counting part-time employees, or 100 or more employees, including part-time, who together work at least 4,000 hours a week, not counting overtime (20 CFR 639.3(a)).
• Plant closing. The permanent or temporary shutdown of a single site, or of one or more facilities or operating units within it, that causes an employment loss for 50 or more employees (not counting part-time) in any 30-day period (639.3(b)).
• Mass layoff. A reduction in force that is not a plant closing and causes an employment loss at a single site in any 30-day period for at least 50 employees who are at least 33 percent of the active workforce, or for 500 or more employees regardless of percentage (639.3(c)).
• Employment loss. A termination other than a discharge for cause, a voluntary departure or retirement; a layoff longer than six months; or a cut of more than 50 percent in hours in each month of any six-month period (639.3(f)).
• The 90-day rule. Smaller cuts at one site within any 90 days are added together, and if the total crosses a threshold the employer owes notice, unless it shows they came from separate and distinct causes (29 U.S.C. 2102(d)).

The employer must give written notice at least 60 days before the closing or layoff to each affected employee (or their union representative), to the state's dislocated worker unit, and to the chief elected official of the local government (29 U.S.C. 2102(a)). The period can be shortened for a "faltering company" seeking capital, or for business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable, and no notice is required when the cause is a natural disaster (2102(b)). An employer that violates the Act can owe each affected worker back pay and benefits for each day of violation, up to 60 days, and courts, not DOL, enforce it (29 U.S.C. 2104).

State "mini-WARN" laws

Federal WARN is a floor. Several states have their own laws that reach smaller employers, smaller cuts or require longer notice. Two examples from the agencies' own pages:

• California (Cal-WARN). Covers establishments that employ, or employed in the preceding 12 months, 75 or more full- and part-time employees. Notice is required at least 60 days before a layoff of 50 or more employees within 30 days regardless of percentage, a plant closure affecting any number of employees, or a relocation of at least 100 miles. Notice goes to the employees, EDD, the local workforce board and local officials.
• New York. Covers private employers with 50 or more full-time employees in the state and requires 90 days' notice, for example for a closing affecting 25 or more employees, or a mass layoff of 25 or more full-time employees who make up at least 33 percent of the site, or 250 or more.

Because the rules differ, a state with a broader law will show more notices for the same economy. Don't compare raw totals across states as if they measured the same thing.

Where states publish notices

There is no single federal database. Each state decides whether and how to post the notices it receives: a spreadsheet, a searchable table, monthly reports, or only PDFs. The Layoff Tracker reads these eight official sources, once at build time and again daily:

New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts also post notices but are not in the tracker yet. Since April 2025 New York publishes them only in a dashboard that blocks automated access, New Jersey posts yearly PDF lists without a notice date, and mass.gov blocks automated requests. The tracker uses only machine-readable official data and does not bypass bot protection.

Which companies show up

Almost any kind of employer: hospitals, retailers, logistics firms, school operators, security contractors, and tech companies. As of Oct 18, 2026, the tracker's data holds 2,092 notices filed in the previous 12 months across the eight states. Amazon filed the most (108), followed by a long list of regional employers with many small sites. Two patterns are worth knowing:

• One layoff, many rows. Companies often file one notice per site. A single round of cuts can appear as dozens of notices, each with a modest count.
• Small rows are normal. In the same 12 months, the median notice covered 41 workers, below the federal 50-worker trigger. That is because counts are per site and states like California require notice for smaller cuts.

To see one employer's history, search its name in the tracker. Matching is by company name, so subsidiaries filed under different names can be missed or grouped imperfectly.

How to read a notice

• Company. The name as filed, which may be a legal entity or include a site name or address.
• Location. The city of the affected site, or county or region when that is all the state gives (Colorado lists workforce regions; Georgia's list has no location).
• Workers. The number of employees affected at that site. Sometimes missing.
• Notice date. When the state received or posted the notice. This is the date the tracker sorts and filters by.
• Effective date. The expected date of the first separation, the first one if a range is given. The regulations require the notice to state this date and the schedule for separations (20 CFR 639.7). In the tracker's data the median gap between the two dates is 60 days.
• Type. Layoff or closure where the state says so. A closure means the site or unit is shutting down; a layoff means it continues with fewer people. Texas and Georgia data do not say, so those rows show "Not stated."

Notices can be amended or rescinded after filing, and dates and counts are as the employer filed them. Before relying on one row, open the linked official notice.

What WARN data cannot tell you

• Not all layoffs need WARN. Employers under 100 employees, cuts below the thresholds, and cuts spread across sites can all fall outside it. Many tech layoffs never appear.
• Remote workers. Under 20 CFR 639.3(i)(6), employees who travel or work outside the employer's regular sites are assigned to their home base, the site their work is assigned from or they report to. A remote engineer in Texas may be counted on a notice for a California office, or may not be clearly visible anywhere.
• Counts are per site. Adding up a company's notices gives the workers covered by WARN filings, not its total layoffs.
• Coverage is partial. Eight states, from 2023 onward (North Carolina from 2026), and Texas's open-data copy can lag.

What to do if you see your employer

1. Don't assume it is your team. Check the location and count. A notice for another site may not affect you.
2. Ask HR for dates in writing. If you are affected, ask for your separation date, whether you stay on payroll through the notice period, and the severance and benefits terms.
3. If you are on a work visa, start the clock early. H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN and E-3 workers get up to 60 days after employment ends. Our guide to the H-1B 60-day grace period and your options walks through the paths, and the Laid Off on a Visa? tool turns your last day into a dated checklist.
4. If notice seems missing or short, the remedy runs through the courts under 29 U.S.C. 2104. An employment lawyer can tell you whether the Act applies.

FAQ

What is a WARN notice?

It is a written notice that the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires before a covered plant closing or mass layoff. It goes to affected workers or their union, to the state's dislocated worker (rapid response) unit, and to the local chief elected official. Many states then publish the notices they receive.

How much notice does the WARN Act require?

At least 60 days before the plant closing or mass layoff under federal law. Some states require more: New York requires 90 days. The period can be shortened for a faltering company or unforeseeable business circumstances, and no notice is required when the cause is a natural disaster.

Does every layoff require a WARN notice?

No. Federally, the employer must have 100 or more employees, and the cut must reach a threshold at a single site within 30 days: 50 or more workers for a plant closing, or for a mass layoff 500 or more workers, or 50 to 499 if they are at least 33 percent of the site's workforce. Part-time employees are not counted toward these thresholds. Smaller cuts often never appear.

Is the notice date the same as the layoff date?

No. The notice date is when the state received or posted the notice. The effective date is the expected date of the first separation, usually about 60 days later. Your own last day can be later still, because separations are often scheduled in waves.

Are remote workers counted in WARN notices?

Under the federal rules, workers who travel or work away from the employer's regular sites are assigned to the single site that serves as their home base, the place their work is assigned from or they report to. A remote worker may therefore appear in a notice for an office in another state, or not be clearly reflected in any notice.

Which states does the Layoff Tracker cover?

As of October 18, 2026 it collects WARN notices from eight states: California, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina and Oregon. Every row links back to the state's official source. New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts are not covered yet because their notices are not published in a form the tracker can read reliably.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Labor: WARN Act overview, employer and worker guides
• eCFR: 20 CFR Part 639, WARN regulations (definitions in 639.3, notice contents in 639.7)
• 29 U.S.C. Chapter 23 (2101 definitions, 2102 notice, 2104 remedies)
• California EDD: Cal-WARN and WARN reports
• New York State DOL: WARN requirements and WARN dashboard
• Washington ESD: WARN layoff and closure database
• Texas Open Data Portal: TWC WARN notices
• Illinois workNet: WARN reports
• Colorado CDLE: layoff WARN list
• Technical College System of Georgia: WARN public view
• North Carolina Commerce: WARN reports
• Oregon HECC: WARN notices

Last updated 2026-10-18. This guide is general information, not legal, immigration or financial advice. Figures marked "as of Oct 18, 2026" come from state WARN data as collected by the Layoff Tracker and will change; check the linked official notice before relying on any row.