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Payrolls in November 2008.

Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 533,000 in November, bringing losses to 1.9 million since the start of the recession in December 2007. Two-thirds of these losses occurred in the last 3 months.

In November, employment declined in nearly all major industries, although health care continued to add jobs.

Employment continued to decline in manufacturing, with widespread job losses occurring among the component industries. Manufacturing employment has declined by 604,000 since December.

Employment in construction fell by 82,000 in November, with losses occurring throughout the industry. Since peaking in September 2006, construction employment has decreased by 780,000.

Within professional and business services, the employment services industry lost 101,000 jobs over the month, bringing total job losses since December to 495,000.

Employment in retail trade fell by 91,000 in November. Job losses continued in automobile dealerships (-24,000).

Employment in leisure and hospitality declined by 76,000 in November, with most of the decline occurring in accommodation and food services. Since peaking in April 2008, accommodation and food services has lost 150,000 jobs.

In November, employment in financial activities continued to decline (-32,000). Job losses in financial activities have accelerated over the last 3 months, bringing the total decline since December to 142,000.

Health care employment grew by 34,000 in November. Over the past 12 months, health care has added 369,000 jobs.

These data are from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program, and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. More information can be found in "The Employment Situation: November 2008," (HTML) news release USDL 08-1774.

For any organization experiencing a downsizing, a key step on the RIF project checklist is that of "deprovisioning" employees from internal technology systems. This includes revoking username and password access to sensitive, internal company databases including CRMs, employee portals, and intranets.

Moreover, in addition to the employee's personal access data, companies regularly create testing, administrative, and "dummy" accounts for a variety of purposes, and these are available to a wide group of employees.

From a recent article citing industry leader Courian on this subject, a Courian expert explained:

"Employees can accumulate an average of 15 to 20 user accounts over the course of employment and it typically takes an enterprise three to five minutes to manually turn off each account upon termination. Organizations faced with having to terminate hundreds of thousands, or even millions of accounts, may think that simply terminating an employee's network access is sufficient protection."

If significant downsizing effects the IT team as well as the general employee population, an even greater risk is exposed as there is less labor to accomplish the task, and the IT Team is the very group with greatest access to sensitive information.

Laid-off employees can easily exploit the lag time between being laid off and having all of their accounts shut off to access sensitive company information. Even worse, usernames and passwords pertaining to zombie accounts could be shared or even sold to the highest bidder, giving cyber-criminals access to sensitive information without the need for sophisticated hacking techniques.

Additionally, When confronted with the prospect of layoffs, 71 percent of the employees surveyed declared they would definitely take company data with them to their next employer. Top of the list of desirable information is the customer and contact databases, with plans and proposals, product information, and access/password codes all proving popular choices, the study says.

For enterprise-level organizations, to manually deprovision thousands of accounts - assuming an average of three minutes per account - would require tens of thousands of labor hours. During the lag time in turning off accounts, the organization would be an easy target for data theft.

In a recent Cisco-sponsored survey of 2,000 employees and IT professionals, the responses showed that one in 10 end-users had either stolen technology, accessed someone else's computer, stolen information and sold it, or knew of co-workers who did.

To receive more information or schedule an off-site RIF Planning Workshop, contact Karen Masullo toll-free at 866-214-5445 or write to km@firstsun.com

First Sun sponsors free webinars or off-site workshops to review the WARN ACT and assist your company in the event of a reduction-in-force activity.

To receive more information or schedule a WARN ACT Workshop, contact Karen Masullo toll-free at 866-214-5445 or write to km@firstsun.com

Watching the breaking news regarding the abrupt closing of Republic Windows and Doors in Illinois, and the resulting media nightmare that has ensued drives this important reminder regarding the WARN ACT.

In Illinois, workers have been occupying the Republic Windows and Doors building since its abrupt closing Friday, December 5. They are protesting the loss of what they said is vacation and severance pay they've earned and the lack of notice about the closing. The federal WARN Act requires 60-day notice of a plant's closing.

The law does allow businesses to close without giving the required notice under certain circumstances, such as if another company that is the sole source of income suddenly goes out of business.

Do you really understand the WARN ACT and your responsibilities?

While the following is an overview of the Federal WARN ACT, many States including South Carolina have enacted Baby Warn ACT provisions. Recently, New Jersey joined the ranks of states that have adopted their own form of plant closing and mass layoff statutes to supplement the federal WARN Act provisions. These states include California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

WARN ACT Overview

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) protects workers, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs.

Employee entitled to notice under WARN include managers and supervisors, as well as hourly and salaried workers. WARN requires that notice also be given to employees' representatives, the local chief elected official, and the state dislocated worker unit.

Advance notice gives workers and their families some transition time to adjust to the prospective loss of employment, to seek and obtain other jobs, and, if necessary, to enter skill training or retraining that will allow these workers to compete successfully in the job market.

Generally, WARN covers employers with 100 or more employees, not counting those who have worked less than six months in the last 12 months and those who work an average of less than 20 hours a week.

Employees entitled to advance notice under WARN include managers and supervisors as well as hourly and salaried workers.

Regular federal, state, and local government entities that provide public services are not covered by WARN.

Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)

Who is Covered

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) generally covers employers with 100 or more employees, not counting those who have worked less than six months in the last 12 months and those who work an average of less than 20 hours a week. Regular federal, state, and local government entities that provide public services are not covered. Employees entitled to notice under WARN include managers and supervisors as well as hourly and salaried workers.

Basic Provisions/Requirements

WARN protects workers, their families, and communities by requiring employers to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs. Advance notice gives workers and their families some transition time to adjust to the prospective loss of employment, to seek and obtain other jobs and, if necessary, to enter skill training or retraining that will allow these workers to compete successfully in the job market. WARN also provides for notice to state dislocated worker units so that they can promptly offer dislocated worker assistance.

A covered plant closing occurs when a facility or operating unit is shut down for more than six months, or when 50 or more employees lose their jobs during any 30 day period at a single site of employment. A covered mass layoff occurs when a layoff of six months or longer affects either 500 or more workers or at least 33 percent of the employer's workforce when the layoff affects between 50 and 499 workers. The number of affected workers is the total number laid off during a 30 day (or in some cases 90 day) period.

WARN does not apply to closure of temporary facilities, or the completion of an activity when the workers were hired only for the duration of that activity. WARN also provides for less than 60 days notice when the layoffs resulted from closure of a faltering company, unforeseeable business circumstances, or a natural disaster.

Employee Rights

Workers or their representatives, and units of local government may bring individual or class action suits. U.S. district courts enforce WARN requirements. The Court may allow reasonable attorney's fees as part of any final judgment.

Compliance Assistance Available

For general information about WARN, a fact sheet and employer's guide (PDF) are available from the Employment and Training Administration's Web site.

Penalties and Sanctions

An employer who violates the WARN provisions is liable to each employee for an amount equal to back pay and benefits for the period of the violation, up to 60 days. This may be reduced by the period of any notice that was given, and any voluntary payments that the employer made to the employee.

An employer who fails to provide the required notice to the unit of local government is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $500 for each day of violation. The employer may avoid this penalty by satisfying the liability to each employee within three weeks after the closing or layoff.

Relation to State, Local, and Other Federal Laws

WARN does not preempt any other federal, state, or local law, or any employer/employee agreement that requires other notification or benefit. Rather, the rights provided by WARN supplement those provided by other federal, state, or local laws.