The 2026 NJ Layoff Warning Trend Spotted in March Continues Through May

As a reminder (or a primer if you’re not familiar) WARN notices signal potential job losses before they hit the ground. Under federal rules, employees who are covered may have certain rights in connection to advance notice of mass layoffs or plant closings. NJ WARN adds a few more teeth and creates a communication protocol that includes the NJDOL along with other entities.

Back in March, we reported that WARN notices were outpacing last year’s numbers and the most recent update from the NJDOL shows that the trend is continuing

The March update on WARN showed 2026 already reaching 36 WARN notices covering 4,281 workers, compared with 28 notices/3,621 workers during that same time frame in 2025.

The May update includes five new employers: Fulton Bank (Parsippany), Worldwide Flight Services (Elizabeth), Accupac (Lakewood), Danone North America (Bridgeton) and DoubleTree by Hilton (Somerset).

Combined, May lands between 639 and 659 workers affected across a diverse set of sectors – banking, airport, manufacturing, food and beverage, hospitality.

One small bright spot is that while 2026 is ahead of 2025 on notices, it is just slightly behind on workers affected for the same time period 6,647 v. 7177

But…the May ’25 numbers need a bit of context – that set includes several large filings (Rite Aid- 1,122 workers, Bristol Myers Squibb -516 workers, GMRI/Bahama Breeze- 327 workers, Randstad- 236 workers, Walmart- 187 workers) that pushed the worker total up.

By itself this doesn’t mean there’s a statewide down turn but as we have been reporting several economic and revenue indicators have been throwing off some concerning signals and this recent report does little to provide assurance.

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