By GREGORY N. HEIRES

As it tries to put a positive veneer on an economy that isn’t working for working families, the Bush administration has quietly stopped reporting on mass layoffs. The Dept. of Labor issued its last report on mass layoffs — firings of 50 or more employees — in November. Funding for the tracking dried up, according to the department.

Daddy Bush’s administration cut off funding during the 1991 economic downturn, but the Clinton administration reestablished the program. Gerald W. McEntee, president of DC 37’s parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and chair of the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute urged Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to restore funding in a joint letter with EPI President Lawrence Mishel.

Between January and November, the department recorded 17,799 mass layoffs. Two million people lost their jobs, and since then significant job losses have hit workers at Verizon Communications (3,500), K-Mart Corp. (37,000), Food Lion (1,500) and Eastman Kodak (2,200).