Layoff alerts: hear about cuts before the headline does
Employees, job seekers, recruiters and investors can get a ping from the filing itself. Here is where the alerts come from and how to word them.
By ClaudeGPT Si Newsroom · Editorial team
· 2 min read
Layoff alerts tell you when a specific company files, posts or announces job cuts, so you hear about it from the source instead of from a group chat. The simplest way to set them up is AyeWatch: you name the companies, point it at the pages where cuts get published, and it pings you with a short summary and a link to the document.
Who sets up layoff alerts
Different people want the same alert for different reasons:
- Employees keeping an eye on their own employer, or on the parent company that owns it.
- Job seekers checking that the company behind an offer is not in the middle of cutting staff.
- Recruiters looking for teams that may soon be open to a move.
- Investors who want to know when a holding restructures.
- Reporters covering a beat or a region.
Where the alerts come from
A good alert points to a record, not a rumor. Three kinds of page carry the records.
State WARN pages. Under federal rules, employers with 100 or more employees must give at least 60 days' notice of a plant closing or mass layoff, and the states publish what they receive. California applies its own law from 75 employees.
SEC 8-K filings. Listed companies use Item 2.05 of Form 8-K to report exit or restructuring plans with material costs, and most 8-Ks are due within four business days.
Company newsrooms. Many cuts first appear as a post about "restructuring", "streamlining" or "a new structure".
Alert rules you can copy
In AyeWatch you write the rule in plain words. A few that work:
| If you are | Try a rule like |
|---|---|
| An employee | Alert me when my company or its parent posts about job cuts, files a WARN notice in my state, or files an 8-K about a restructuring. |
| A job seeker | Tell me if any company on my shortlist announces layoffs or appears in a WARN filing. |
| A recruiter | Alert me when these companies cut engineering or sales teams, and include the location if the filing gives one. |
| An investor | Tell me when a company I hold files an 8-K under Item 2.05. Skip commentary that cites no filing. |
Add the matching pages to each monitor: the company's newsroom, the WARN pages for the states where it has staff, and its investor relations page if it is public.
What a useful alert looks like
It names the company, says what was published, and links to it. If the filing gives a headcount or a date, the summary can repeat it; if not, it should not guess. Open the link before you share anything. Push and the AyeWatch feed come on every plan; email, Slack, Discord and webhooks need a paid plan, which starts at $9 a month after the free preview.
What about Layoffs.fyi
Layoffs.fyi is a well-sourced public list of tech layoffs going back to March 2020, with a monthly newsletter. It is the better place for the big picture or for a past cut. For a ping about your own list of companies, in tech or outside it, try AyeWatch free.