How Many People Lost Their Job In 2023?

2023 has been a year to forget in many ways here in Texas. A major reason for that is the rising costs of everything.

The cost of housing jumped up significantly due to appraisals of houses jumping up so significantly. Thankfully, there's a new law going into effect in January that will curb that from happening again.

Get our free mobile app

The cost of food jumped up quite a bit, making it a bit tougher for those to put food on the table, even with most people maintaining their jobs and salaries.

Well, bad news regarding jobs. It seems that Texas as a whole is going through a bad layoff phase, and it feels like only a matter of time before it hits Amarillo.

According to the Texas Workforce Commission, there have been three times more WARN notices in 2023 than there were just last year.

WHAT IS A WARN NOTICE

WARN stands for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification and it has its own act here in Texas. Under the WARN Act, businesses must provide a notice to the Texas Workforce Commission 60 days in advance of a mass layoff or plant closure.

HOW MANY WARN NOTICES HAS TEXAS HAD IN 2023

This number is staggering compared to 2022. This year, the Texas Workforce Commission has received 224 WARN notices filed, and we still have a couple of weeks left in the year.

In 2022, there were just 86 notices filed. Yes, that's almost three times the amount of notices filed this year.

SO HOW MANY JOBS DOES THAT EQUATE TO?

So far in Texas, those notices have equated to nearly 24,000 people losing their jobs in 2023 due to a closure or mass layoff. As we look for ways to cut corners, clearly so are businesses.

These layoffs aren't limited to just the big cities either. I've heard of a few layoffs happening here in Amarillo, and there's one that we haven't been able to confirm yet, but it appears to be a relatively big company responsible for many jobs in the city.

WILL 2024 BE BETTER...OR WORSE?

Sadly there's no way to be able to tell right now. The hope is that things begin to turn around a bit and we see the economy take a turn for the better. Gas prices have hit a yearly low, so that has to be a good sign, right?