There's a famous paper in economics that looks at the long-term labor market outcomes for people that were laid-off because of plant closings versus those were just laid-off:
http://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlabec/v9y1991i4p351-80.html
The plant-closing people generally fair better: the idea is that the market/future employers infer that the firm used their discretion when making regular layoffs (using it as a chance to get rid of the low performers) but that no negative inference is warranted in the case of plant closings.
The plant-closing people generally fair better: the idea is that the market/future employers infer that the firm used their discretion when making regular layoffs (using it as a chance to get rid of the low performers) but that no negative inference is warranted in the case of plant closings.