MASSACHUSETTS — Monthly Unemployment Claimant Data

Massachusetts had 18,402 individuals file an initial claim for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) between September 19^th to October 16^th, 2021, a decrease of 7,011 claims from the previous four weeks aggregated. Over the last four weeks, larger decreases were seen in: Information Not Available (either lacking industry or employer information), down 1,525 claims; Food and Accommodation, down 789; Health Care and Social Assistance, down 737 claims.

Continued weeks claimed decreased by 13,087 from the previous four weeks to 217,278 between September 19^th to October 16^th. The largest decreases were seen in Transportation and Warehouse, down 8,512 claims; Public Administration, down 2,056 claims; and Education, down 946 claims.

Over the last four weeks, the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program had 2,762 initial claims filed and 101,105 continued weeks claimed, a decrease of 654,455 from the four weeks prior (August 22^nd to September 18^th). The PUA benefits program ended on September 4, 2021.

The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which was implemented on May 21, 2020, had 293 initial claims.  Continued weeks claimed decreased by 543,014 to 3,152.  The PEUC program ended on September 4, 2021.

The federal/state Extended Benefits (EB) program which triggered off on July 17 had 4 initial claims filed and 17 continued weeks claimed within the four weeks beginning September 19^th.

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

NOTE: Following the termination of pandemic assistance (PUA, FPUC, PEUC) and long-term benefit (EB) programs, claims reports will be published in conjunction with the Massachusetts Unemployment and Job Estimates monthly releases, at mass.gov/lwd in the News and Updates section. Weekly UI claims reporting can be found at https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.

Consistent with Initial Claims filed over the last four weeks: industries with the highest number of continued claims include Health Care and Social Assistance, Retail Trade, Construction industries.

At the start of the pandemic, the industries with the highest of continued claims were Construction, Retail Trade, Food and Accommodation, Health Care and Social Assistance, and Other Services. They all follow similar trends after June 2021, as their recovery rate track closely together.

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 October 9^th rather than the week ending October 16^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 October 16^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 September 11^th, 2021:

 

PUA Demographic Series 

Demographic breakdowns of continued claims for the PUA program, which covers the self-employed and others not eligible for traditional unemployment insurance, is no longer available as the program ended on September 4^th, 2021.

 

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