skills/local-layoff-scan/SKILL.md

---
name: local-layoff-scan
description: "Use when someone asks about layoffs near a U.S. city, ZIP code, state, region or location: which employers near a place filed WARN layoff notices, recent local layoffs and plant closures, notices within a radius, what happened in an area this week, month or quarter, or how it compares with the period before. Use the DataCEVA US Layoff Notices connector to search notices, summarize affected workers, compare periods and check data coverage."
---

# Local layoff scan

Summarize WARN layoff notices for one place and period, using the DataCEVA US Layoff Notices connector. Before
answering for the first time in a conversation, read `references/warn-data-notes.md` for what the data covers and
how to cite it.

## Steps

1. **Pin down the place and period.**
   - Place: a city as `City, ST`, a 5-digit ZIP, a state, or a census region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West).
     The data covers U.S. states and D.C. only; for anywhere else, say so and stop.
   - Radius: 25 miles unless the user says otherwise (up to 100).
   - Period: turn "this month", "last quarter" and similar into `filed_after` / `filed_before` dates. With no
     period, use the last 90 days and say so.
2. **List the notices.** Call `search_layoff_notices` with the place (or `states` / `census_region`) and dates,
   `sort: "largest"`, `limit: 20`. If `total_matching` is larger than what came back, say how many more there
   are.
3. **Break it down.** Call `summarize_layoffs` with the same filters and `group_by: "industry"`. For periods
   longer than two months, also call it with `group_by: "month"`.
4. **Compare with the period before.** Call `summarize_layoffs` again with the same filters for the previous
   period of the same length, and compare notices and workers.
5. **Check coverage.** Call `get_data_coverage` for the state (or each state in the region, if few), so you can
   say whether its list is current.
6. **Write the scan** in the format below.

## Format

**Answer** (two or three sentences): how many notices and workers in the place and period, the largest one,
and the change from the period before (as numbers, not just "up" or "down").

**Notices** (table, largest first): company, city, filed date, layoff date, workers, type, industry, source
link (`notice_url`, or the agency's `state_warn_page`).

**By industry** (table: industry, notices, workers), with a note that industry comes from some states only.

**Compared with the period before** (one short paragraph). Don't call a change a trend when the counts are
small (for example 3 notices vs 2).

**Limits** (bullets that apply): approximate locations (ZIP, city or county centre); states that publish only a
planned layoff date (GA, NJ, PA and much of MI) are left out of filed-date results unless
`include_scheduled_only` is set; any state that is partial, saved-history-only or unavailable; the as-of date.

## Rules

- Use only what the tools return; don't add layoffs from memory or the news.
- Keep filed date and layoff date distinct, and label which one a date is.
- Never describe or look for individual employees.
- If nothing is found, say no WARN notices were filed in the covered data for that place and period, not that
  there were no layoffs.