MASSACHUSETTS — Massachusetts Weekly Unemployment Claimant Data

For the week ending September 4, Massachusetts had 5,712 individuals file an initial claim for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI), an increase of 221 claims from the previous week with most of the sectors showing increases. The larger increases were seen in: Construction, up 74 claims; Manufacturing, up 42; Food and Accommodation, up 42; and Public Administration, up 36 claims. Continued weeks claimed for week ending September 4 decreased by 2,659 from the previous week to 58,677 with the largest declines in Food and Accommodation, Health Care and Social Assistance, Retail Trade, and Professional and Technical Services.

For week ending September 4, the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program had 6,140 initial claims filed, an increase of 2,565 claims from the previous week while PUA continued weeks claimed increased by 35,470 to 281,833.  The PUA benefits program ended on September 4, 2021.

The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which was implemented on May 21, 2020, had 5,238 initial claims, up by 1,812 from the previous week.  Continued weeks claimed decreased by 7,593 to 177,019.  The PEUC program ended on September 4, 2021.

The federal/state Extended Benefits (EB) program which triggered off on July 17 had 55 initial claims filed and 43 continued weeks claimed.

The Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) which provided an additional $300 a week on top of regular benefits also ended on September 4, 2021.

 

 Initial Claims Filed

 

 

Demographic Breakdowns 

Below we present demographic statistics on ethnicity, gender, and race for all those claimants who filed for a continued week in the period prior to the above information. This is to say that because of the timing of data availability, the below statistics reflect continued weeks claimed in the week ending August 28^th rather than the week ending September 4^th. All demographic information is presented as a percentage of claimants who responded, excluding claimants for whom the information was not available. 

Regular UI Demographic Series

Here we present the breakdown by gender, ethnicity, and race of continued claims for Regular UI between March 8^th, 2020 and August 28^th, 2021:

 

UI Extensions Demographic Series 

Here we present the breakdown by gender, ethnicity, and race of continued claims for the PEUC and EB programs, which cover the long term unemployed, between May 31^st, 2020 and August 28^th, 2021:

 

PUA Demographic Series 

Here we present the breakdown by gender, ethnicity, and race of continued claims for the PUA program, which covers the self-employed and others not eligible for traditional unemployment insurance, between April 19^th, 2020 and August 28^th, 2021:

 

 

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