--- pretty_name: WARN Act notice-type codes crosswalk - every raw state string and what it means license: cc-by-4.0 language: - en task_categories: - tabular-classification - text-classification tags: - warn-act - data-cleaning - entity-resolution - normalization - crosswalk - codebook - data-dictionary - layoffs - layoff-notices - plant-closings - labor - labor-market - public-records - government-data - daily-updated - united-states size_categories: - n<1K configs: - config_name: crosswalk data_files: data/notice_type_crosswalk.csv --- # WARN Act notice-type codes — the crosswalk Every US state publishes WARN Act layoff notices with a free-text column saying what kind of event it is. The statute recognises **two**: a *plant closing* and a *mass layoff*. Across 48 states that column contains **552 distinct exact strings** (531 once you fold case). This dataset is the **crosswalk**: one row per raw string, how many notices carry it, which states emit it, and what it normalizes to. ## The finding that matters **521 of the 552 strings (94%) are used by exactly one state. Only 31 are shared across states at all.** There is no common vocabulary. `CL` means *closure* in Indiana and Wisconsin; Illinois fills the column with `State`; five states write `WARN` — the name of the statute — where the event type belongs. 372 strings appear on a single notice in the entire archive. This is why "just parse the state files" does not converge: there is nothing to parse *toward* until someone reads all 48 vocabularies and keeps reading them as states change their exports. ## Vocabulary by what it maps to | maps to | distinct strings | |---|---| | layoff | 185 | | closure | 147 | | mixed (both terms present) | 23 | | unknown (deliberately unmapped) | 197 | `unknown` is a real category, not a failure to try. It covers blanks, strings that name *which statute applies* rather than what happened (`State`, `WARN`, numeric record codes), and strings that name a *cause* (`loss of contract`, `sale of company`, `COVID-19`) rather than an event. Guessing these would manufacture thousands of false rows that no downstream user could detect. ## The 12 most common strings | raw value | maps to | notices | states | used by | |---|---|---|---|---| | *(blank)* | **unknown** | 13,759 | 29 | AK CO CT DC FL HI ID KY LA MA MN MO MT ND… | | `Layoff Permanent` | **layoff** | 7,812 | 2 | CA TN | | `Closure` | **closure** | 6,077 | 15 | AK AL CO KY MI MS NC NE NV NY OH PA VA WA WV | | `Layoff` | **layoff** | 5,943 | 15 | AK AL KY MI MO MS NC NE NV NY OH PA VA WA WV | | `State` | **unknown** | 4,845 | 1 | IL | | `Closure Permanent` | **closure** | 4,164 | 2 | CA TN | | `Layoff Temporary` | **layoff** | 3,657 | 2 | CA TN | | `WARN` | **unknown** | 1,658 | 5 | AZ DE KS ME VT | | `Plant Closing` | **closure** | 1,398 | 4 | MI NY OK PA | | `Closing` | **closure** | 1,196 | 8 | CO CT IA MN MO PA RI WV | | `CL` | **closure** | 862 | 2 | IN WI | | `Mass Layoff` | **layoff** | 838 | 8 | CO IA MD MI NY OK PA WV | ## Files - **`data/notice_type_crosswalk.csv`** — 552 rows: `raw_value`, `kind`, `permanence`, `reason`, `notices`, `n_states`, `states`. Covers all **61,304** notices in the archive as of 2026-09-13; rebuilt daily in the same pipeline run as the notices themselves, so the two can never disagree. ## Limits — read before citing - These are **notices**, not verified job losses. A WARN notice can be amended, rescinded, or never carried out. - The mapping is conservative: anything that does not clearly say closing or layoff is left `unknown` rather than guessed. - `permanence` is only populated where the state says so; most states do not. - Counts are of notices, not workers. ## Related - [Daily US WARN notices (flagship)](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-warn-act-layoffs-notices-daily) — the full normalized feed - [Plant closings vs mass layoffs](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-plant-closings-vs-mass-layoffs-warn-act) — this mapping applied - [Site](https://approjects-warn-act-notices.static.hf.space) · [Source and methodology](https://github.com/APVentureEngine/warn-act-notices) License CC-BY-4.0. Built from public state government records. ## A layoff record you can audit, not just download This dataset is one cut of a single daily rebuild: **61,330 US WARN Act layoff notices from 48 state agencies, 1988 to today**, one schema, no login, no delay, CC BY 4.0. Snapshot as of **2026-09-17**; the files above are rebuilt every day, so the live count is the truth. Several projects publish a current WARN scrape and two of them carry more rows than we do. None of them publish what the records **used to say**: - **617 observed changes to already-published notices, logged daily since 2026-08-31.** `data/revisions.csv` records every field that differed between two consecutive daily builds — employee counts, effective dates, notice types, company names — with the old value, the new value and the date we saw it. We publish the observation and not the cause: a change is equally explained by the agency amending the notice or by our own parser improving, and we do not guess which (see `data/revisions.README.txt`). A scrape that starts tomorrow cannot backfill any of it; it only exists if someone was watching. - **6,799 notices whose state agency page no longer lists them.** Agencies take notices down. We keep them, flagged as archive-only, so a count you ran last year still reconciles. - **Point-in-time employer identity.** The ticker crosswalk resolves a filer to the company as it existed at the time of the notice — Kmart, Sears Holdings, Symantec — not to whatever is on today's ticker file. If you have to defend a number to an editor, a referee or a compliance reviewer, that provenance layer is the part you cannot rebuild yourself. [How to cite this dataset →](https://github.com/APVentureEngine/warn-act-notices/blob/main/CITATION.cff) **Look something up right now — free, no signup, nothing to install.** [Check any employer or state against the last 180 days →](https://approjects-warn-act-notices.static.hf.space/watch-now.html) It runs in your browser against these same files. **Building something with it?** The same files are a free HTTP API — JSON and CSV, no key, no signup, `access-control-allow-origin: *` so `fetch()` works from a browser: [endpoints, schema and curl examples →](https://approjects-warn-act-notices.static.hf.space/api.html) **Need one industry only?** The same filings, cut by an auditable employer-name rule (each row keeps the rule that fired): [tech companies](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-tech-company-layoffs-warn-act-notices-daily) · [hospitals & healthcare](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-hospital-healthcare-layoffs-warn-act-notices-daily) · [retail store closings](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-retail-store-closings-layoffs-warn-act-notices-daily) · [restaurants & hotels](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-restaurant-hotel-closings-layoffs-warn-act-notices-daily) · [factory & plant closings](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-factory-plant-closings-manufacturing-layoffs-warn-act-notices-daily) · [banks, insurance & finance](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-bank-insurance-finance-layoffs-warn-act-notices-daily) · [warehouses, trucking & logistics](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-warehouse-trucking-logistics-layoffs-warn-act-notices-daily) · [all 20 sectors](https://huggingface.co/datasets/APProjects/us-layoffs-by-industry-sector-warn-act). **Or have it watch a list for you.** Coming back to look is the part a CSV cannot do. **WARN Watch — $49 for a year**, one payment, nothing auto-renews, 14-day refund, no login: up to 500 employer names plus whole states, matched on every daily refresh, delivered to a private alert page + calendar (.ics) + RSS + an optional Slack / Discord / Teams webhook. Every alert carries that employer's whole filing history from the archive, which a keyword rule on an RSS feed cannot see. There is no built-in email — we do not claim one. - [See a real alert page before paying](https://approjects-warn-act-notices.static.hf.space/watch-sample.html) · [what you get](https://approjects-warn-act-notices.static.hf.space/watch.html) - [Try it free for 30 days, no card](https://approj.gumroad.com/l/warn-free-watch) · [Buy — $49/year](https://approj.gumroad.com/l/warn-watch) **Not deciding today?** [Join the update list →](https://approj.gumroad.com/subscribe) — one email when a new dataset or tier is published; nothing promotional. A state added or a column renamed ships in the [daily release](https://github.com/APVentureEngine/warn-act-notices/releases) instead, no address needed. The list is shared across APProjects datasets, holds an email address only, is run by Gumroad, and any message unsubscribes you. Rather give no address at all? [Watch the repo's releases](https://github.com/APVentureEngine/warn-act-notices/subscription) — GitHub notifies you on every daily republish, and a new state or changed field is in those notes the day it lands. **Reaching a human.** WARN Feed is published by APProjects, an automated data publisher — that is stated plainly rather than dressed up. Corrections, coverage gaps, schema questions and refund requests all go here and are read: [open an issue](https://github.com/APVentureEngine/warn-act-notices/issues/new/choose). Payments are handled by Gumroad as merchant of record, so an invoice can carry your company name. [Source, scrapers and methodology](https://github.com/APVentureEngine/warn-act-notices) · [the 48-state site](https://approjects-warn-act-notices.static.hf.space/) Card views are counted anonymously: one 1×1 image on a public CDN, no cookies, no script, no personal data. The count is public: jsDelivr stats.