Hawaii Layoffs November 2026: WARN Numbers Explained

Hawaii's 2026 layoff picture looks straightforward: 39 WARN notices reporting 720 workers. But almost none of that total comes from the official filings. The state's own notices — filed with the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations — report just 4 workers across 38 filings in the last year. The other 716 come from attributed secondary records.

These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. WARN notices describe what an employer says it intends to do, and the registry counts notices, not unique people.

The 2026 picture so far

Hawaii's imported archive holds 510 non-cancelled WARN notices reporting 720 workers in total, with 6 notices carrying future effective dates. All 720 sit in 2026: the year-by-year history shows 39 notices and 720 workers this year, against 40 notices and zero workers in 2025, 30 and zero in 2024, and 26 and zero in 2023.

Hawaii publishes notices, but for most years without worker counts. Across the full archive, 504 of 510 notices have unavailable worker counts, so year-to-year worker-total comparisons mostly measure how many counts happened to be published, not how many jobs were affected.

Where the 720 workers come from

All 720 reported workers in 2026 come from secondary records, not direct government filings. Six filings account for the whole total:

• First Insurance Company of Hawaii, Honolulu — 212 workers, effective October 1, 2026
• Good Samaritan Society–Pohai Nani, Kaneohe — 185 workers, effective October 31, 2026
• Ali'i Health Center, Kailua Kona — 140 workers, effective October 1, 2026
• Festival Fun Parks — 117 workers, effective October 18, 2026
• Amentum, Schofield Barracks — 62 workers, effective October 31, 2026
• Laie Water Company — 4 workers, notice dated September 25, 2026

Together that is 212 + 185 + 140 + 117 + 62 + 4 = 720. Three of the six are health-care employers, and two of the largest took effect on the same day, October 1.

The official-filing gap

In the last 365 days, Hawaii's archive holds 38 eligible official filings reporting just 4 affected workers between them — the Laie Water filing. The other 37 carry no worker count at all. The newest official notice is dated November 5, 2026.

The archive splits into 458 direct government records and 52 attributed secondary records. The official feed is active and current, but it almost never states how many workers are affected. That is a reporting-format gap, not evidence of small layoffs: a closure with no count still describes a closure; the registry just cannot add it to a worker total.

What's still on the calendar

Six Hawaii notices have future effective dates; four land on the same day, December 31, 2026, all closures:

• HCI 415 Nahua Owner — closure, effective December 31, 2026, notice dated November 2
• Alaska Airlines — closure, effective December 31, 2026, notice dated November 2
• DFS Group — closure, effective December 31, 2026, notice dated October 30
• Ben Bridge, jeweler — closure, effective December 31, 2026, notice dated October 15

A fifth, Centene Management Company, is a closure effective January 4, 2027, noticed on November 2 — one of the earliest 2027 effective dates in the national registry. Dole Food Company Hawaii, a closure effective November 30, 2026, was noticed on October 5. The most recent filing is Over Easy LLC, doing business as Easy 'Que Restaurant: a closure notice filed November 5, effective November 8 — a three-day notice period, with no worker count reported.

The Beach House Kauai notified the state on October 23 that Hurricane Lowell had damaged the property, forcing a temporary pause of all services and events. Its effective date was September 7, 2026. It is a closure in the registry, but the notice describes storm damage and a pause, not a decision to cut staff.

Hawaii in the national picture

Nationally, the 90-day window holds 661 notices covering 62,751 reported workers, with 30 counts unavailable, updated November 10, 2026. California leads with 20,862 reported workers, followed by Washington with 17,387, Illinois with 3,432, Virginia with 2,556, and Maryland with 2,484. Hawaii's 720 workers are a small slice of that total, but the comparison is lopsided: California and Washington publish worker counts on most filings, while Hawaii publishes them on almost none.

The weeks ahead are heavy: 6,146 workers effective the week of November 11, 5,939 the week of November 18, and 9,858 the week of November 25 — the heaviest week on the calendar.

How to read Hawaii's numbers

Three rules make Hawaii's data usable. First, treat the notice count as the reliable signal and the worker total as a floor: 39 notices in 2026 is a real count, while 720 workers is only what six attributed reports happened to state. Second, a missing count is not a zero — the 37 official filings with no count describe real closures and layoffs that never entered the worker total. Third, check the source mix before comparing Hawaii with other states: a state that reports counts on every filing will always look bigger than one that reports them on almost none.

Hawaii also has its own state notice law, the Dislocated Workers Act, alongside the federal WARN Act. Workers who receive a notice can contact the state's Rapid Response team for help with unemployment benefits, retraining, and job placement.

Data source: Layoff Atlas