Several major Wisconsin companies kicked off the new year with a spout of layoffs, letting go of 1,788 employees, a 109% increase over last January, according to the Department of Workforce Development.

In January, the U.S. added over 353,000 jobs, helping unemployment rates remain low at around 3.7%. This marks two consecutive years of unemployment levels below 4%.

Economically, Wisconsin is in step with national trends. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s latest Monthly Economic Update, which covered data for December 2023, revealed Wisconsin employment increased by 4,800 in December, pushing the total employment increase from December 2022 to 42,700, an increase of 1.4%.

Unemployment in the state remained low at 3.3%, 0.4% below the national rate. The report also noted that Wisconsin revenues increased by 0.7% in the first half of the 2024 fiscal year, and milk prices in the state edged higher while corn prices dropped by $0.40 a bushel from October 2023 to November 2023.

December’s healthy statistics offer a hopeful forecast for early 2024, according to the Wisconsin Bankers Association. A Jan. 2, 2024 report by WBA president and CEO Rose Poels said the Wisconsin economy’s resilience is expected to continue throughout 2024.

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But this January’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act layoff notices showed a 109% increase compared to this time last year, according to DWD WARN Notices. Established by Congress in 1988, the WARN Act requires employers with 100 or more employees provide 60 days advance notice prior to certain plant closures and mass layoffs to both employees and state governments, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Several Madison-based employers reported layoffs including Lost Boys Interactive who cut 12 employees in their Madison office, DBA America’s Credit Union who cut 38 employees and StrataTech Corp who cut 35 employees, according to Department of Workforce Development statistics.

University of Wisconsin SuccessWorks career and internship specialist Beth Karabin said though these layoffs may seem large, private sector employment tends to move in waves, so month-to-month volatility is to be expected.

Additionally, the concentration of layoffs within individual sectors of the economy is not the kind of economic disruption that should cause much concern at scale, according to community economic development specialist and researcher at UW’s division of extension Matthew Kures.

Though layoffs are concentrated in one sector of the economy, the sudden increase still raises questions about what has changed for employers since last January. According to Kures, the willingness to let go of employees is likely a result of waning fears by employers that they will be able to hire new employees if they need to.

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“I think one of the things that you’re seeing with some businesses is that they might have been a little bit hesitant to do layoffs in the last couple of years because of the hiring challenges that they were facing and and the number of job openings and the quit rate, but now with unemployment rates ticking up just a bit and maybe a little more, they’re more willing to let those employees go,” Kures said.

In 2023, tech companies across the country initiated precipitous layoffs, a result of a pandemic hiring binge, inflation and low consumer interest according to previous reporting from  The Badger Herald. The same problems underpinning layoffs at U.S. tech companies likely played a part in the January layoffs at Lost Boys Interactive, which was acquired by Gearbox Software in 2022 for an undisclosed price, according to Karabin.

Though hiring slowed in the fall, Karabin expects it to pick up again in the spring and said students shouldn’t be overly concerned with subtle changes in the job market as they are likely to even out in the near future.

“Don’t worry so much about what you can’t control, like hiring numbers and insurance or interest rates, focus on what you can do, making yourself competitive, unique and engaged in what you do,” Karabin said.