Monthly report on mass layoffs being dropped

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has dropped the government's monthly report on mass layoffs, which also had been eliminated when President Bush's father was in office.

The report by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded layoffs of 50 or more workers regardless of duration.

It was started in 1984 but was dropped for lack of funding during the last recession in 1992, when the first President Bush was in office. Lack of funding was cited this time, too. The program had been revived in 1995 under President Clinton.

The last report was issued on Christmas Eve with November's figures showing that U.S. companies laid off more than 240,000 workers in 2,150 mass layoffs.

A Labor Department spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.