Massachusetts came very close to hitting another grim milestone this morning when new federal data showed the number of first-time unemployment claims filed since the coronavirus crisis began reached 949,055. State data including jobless claims by independent contractors and the self-employed, which will be released later today, could drive that tally still higher.
The federal Department of Labor says 55,448 Bay Staters filed first-time unemployment claims in the week ending May 2. That’s 15,910 fewer than the prior week, continuing a slow decline in numbers of first-time filers that has yet to approach pre-virus norms.
State data released last week and likely to be updated this morning showed 171,59 had applied for a new type of unemployment insurance for independent contractors and the self-employed in its first week since it was set up to deal with fallout from the pandemic. So far, 25.37 percent of Massachusetts’ 3.74 million-person workforce has filed for unemployment, including applicants who may not have earned enough money in their previous jobs to qualify for unemployment benefits.
Nation-wide, nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the business shutdowns caused by the viral outbreak deepened the worst U.S. economic catastrophe in decades.
Roughly 33.5 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the seven weeks since the coronavirus began forcing millions of companies to close their doors and slash their workforces. That is the equivalent of one in five Americans who had been employed back in February, when the unemployment rate had reached a 50-year low of just 3.5 percent.
On Friday, the government will issue the April jobs report, and it’s likely to be the worst since modern record-keeping began after World War II. The unemployment rate is forecast to reach at least 16 percent, the highest rate since the Great Depression, and economists estimate that 21 million jobs were lost last month. If so, it would mean that nearly all the job growth in the 11 years since the Great Recession ended has vanished in a single month.
Even those stunning figures won’t fully capture the magnitude of the damage the coronavirus has inflicted on the job market. Many people who are still employed have had their hours reduced. Others have suffered pay cuts. Some who lost jobs in April and didn’t look for a new one in light of their bleak prospects won’t even be counted as unemployed. A broader measure – the proportion of adults with jobs – could hit a record low.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
