Methodology

How LayoffSignal builds trust into recruiting intelligence

LayoffSignal is designed for recruiters and talent teams that need faster access to credible market signals. Our goal is not just to aggregate layoffs, but to make source quality, recency, and enrichment easy to evaluate.

Official notices

When available, events are tied to public WARN notices, SEC filings, and other official disclosures that provide the strongest verification trail.

Attributed reporting

We also incorporate credible published reporting when official filings are unavailable or delayed, while preserving source visibility on the event itself.

Structured enrichment

Events may be enriched with recruiter-facing summaries, role concentration estimates, and talent opportunity signals to help teams prioritize outreach.

Timestamped presentation

Each event is displayed with a visible date so users can quickly judge timeliness and act on fresh opportunities first.

Core principles

Visible provenance matters more than black-box scoring alone.

Freshness should be legible at a glance.

AI enrichment should accelerate recruiter workflow, not hide uncertainty.

Official documents and attributable reporting should be distinguishable.

Users should understand where estimation is involved in structured role analysis.

Important limitations

Public layoff reporting can lag real-world events, and some structured fields may rely on estimation when companies do not disclose detailed role-level breakdowns. LayoffSignal is built to improve decision speed and sourcing quality, but it should be used alongside recruiter judgment and direct candidate validation.

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Data Coverage & Freshness

LayoffSignal tracks workforce reduction events from January 2016 to present, sourced from SEC 8-K filings, WARN Act notices, and credible news reporting.

Update frequency

New events collected every 30 minutes via automated pipeline
AI displacement scores and enrichment computed daily
TIDE predictive scores updated every 12 hours
Macroeconomic indicators (FRED, GPR) refreshed weekly

Source types

SEC filings, state WARN Act notices, major news outlets, and credible industry publications. Each event displays its source type and, where available, a direct link to the original filing or article.

For detailed scoring methodology, see: AI Displacement Index Methodology, Recession Pulse Methodology, and Contagion Map Methodology.

Related Methodology

AI Displacement Index Methodology — How we calculate workforce automation risk scores
Recession Pulse — Macro-economic leading indicators and layoff risk correlation
Contagion Map — Epidemiological SIR modeling of sector layoff propagation

Proprietary Methodology · The scoring models, analytical frameworks, and data processing pipelines described on this page are proprietary to LayoffSignal. This overview is provided for transparency and evaluation purposes only.

The specific implementation details — including model weights, prompt engineering, scoring algorithms, data enrichment logic, and pipeline architecture — are trade secrets of LayoffSignal and are not disclosed in this document.