This paper studied the AE(acoustic emission) characteristics of the laminated composite structures. The composite stiffened panels under the compressive loading emitted various AE signals when they buckled or changed the buckling modes. In addition, the failure initiated and propagation generated a lot of complex signals. From the continuous signal generation. we identified when the failures initiated and whether they propagated or not. The single lap joint of laminated plates under tensional load also generated AE signals when bonding region failed. The first failure occurrence and its propagation are monitored by generated AE signals. The characteristics of AE signals used in this analysis are cumulative hits, hit distribution, peak frequency of generated AE waveform and amplitude of signals. The analysis of AE signals shows that continuous increment of cumulative hits can be regarded as damage propagation and three dominant peak frequencies can correspond to typical failure modes in the laminated composites.