The total number of unemployment claims filed in Massachusetts since the coronavirus pandemic began hit 893,607 at the end of last week as another 70,552 filed first-time jobless claims for the week ending Saturday, April 25.
The most recent round of initial claims data released by the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.Thursday shows the state’s job losses continue to slow, but still represent a torrent. The prior week saw 80,969 initial claims filed, according to figures from the federal Department of Labor.
Last week also saw the first time independent contractors, the self-employed and gig workers could claim unemployment benefits under the separate Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, or PUA. That program reported 171,59 applications between April 19 and April 25.
At present, 527,538 Massachusetts residents, or 14.1 percent of the workforce, are receiving traditional unemployment insurance, meaning they have claimed unemployment benefits for at least two weeks in a row. The state’s unemployment rate will sit at roughly 16 percent if every applicant from the week ending April 25 continues claiming and is granted unemployment. The number of first-time jobless claims filed in the traditional unemployment insurance system and the PUA system since the pandemic began equate to 24 percent of the state’s workforce.
More than 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the U.S. economy slid further into a crisis that is becoming the most devastating since the 1930s.
Roughly 30.3 million people in America have now filed for jobless aid in the six weeks since the coronavirus outbreak began forcing millions of employers to close their doors and slash their workforces. That is more people than live in the New York and Chicago metropolitan areas combined, and it’s by far the worst string of layoffs on record. It adds up to more than one in six American workers.
With more employers cutting payrolls to save money, economists have forecast that the unemployment rate for April could go as high as 20 percent. That would be the highest rate since it reached 25 percent during the Great Depression.
The Economic Policy Institute has calculated that about 70 percent of people who have filed for unemployment benefits nationwide since the virus struck have been approved. Applications from the rest may still be pending, or they might have been turned down. Some applicants may not have earned enough money in their previous jobs to qualify for unemployment benefits.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Updated 12:22 p.m., April 30, 2020: This story has been updated to include new unemployment statistics released by the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
