by Peter Hall, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
While Wednesday’s jobs report beat expectations for growth in January, about 4,000 Pennsylvania workers have received notices so far this year that they’ll be laid off.
That puts the commonwealth third in the country, behind California and New Jersey, for the largest number of jobs eliminated or slated to be cut in 2026. That’s according to WARN Tracker, a website that aggregates layoff notices larger employers are required to file in each state.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires employers with more than 100 workers to provide at least 60 days notice of layoffs.
Among the companies laying off the largest numbers are Amazon Fresh, which reported it will cut 983 jobs as it closes six stores in the Philadelphia area, and the supermarket chain GIANT, which announced it will eliminate about 500 jobs early this year.
In 2025, employers filed 14,235 WARN notices in the commonwealth.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which surveys businesses and households to estimate nonfarm payrolls, the unemployment rate and wage trends, releases state-level data a few weeks after its monthly employment situation report.
What can the number of layoff notices reveal about the state of Pennsylvania’s economy?
Keystone Research Center economist Stephen Herzenberg compared it to a blind person trying to describe an elephant by touch. The more places they touch, the better the description.
“You can glean information from just about any source of accurate data,” he said. “You can glean even more information from multiple sources of data.”
By taking into account trends in recent data for Pennsylvania, Herzenberg said, a picture emerges that the economic health of the commonwealth and the nation is largely the same.
“At the top level what you see is a job market that is weakening. You see an uptick in the unemployment rate. You see a bigger uptick in the rate for certain groups such as Black and Hispanic workers,” Herzenberg said.
The U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in January while the unemployment rate changed little at 4.3%, according to the BLS report. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, the commonwealth in December saw a net increase of 18,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate was stable at 4.2%.
The BLS, however, revises its calculations as more information, such as tax dat,a becomes available throughout the year.
As a result of those routine revisions, the agency slashed job gains in 2025 from 584,000 to just 181,000 for the 12 months from April 2024 to March 2025.
Lauren S. Holubec, executive director of the Pennsylvania Workforce Development Association, said layoff notices offer a signal for economists, but not a complete picture. The fact that unemployment has remained steady suggests a redeployment of the workforce, as people move jobs.
She noted growth in Pennsylvania has been strongest in the education, financial services, and professional services sectors.
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Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.
