Massachusetts new unemployment claims rise, bucking national trend

(The Center Square) – While new unemployment claims are dropping across the nation, Massachusetts is bucking that trend.

According to the latest Unemployment Claims report from the U.S. Department of Labor, 184,000 initial claims were filed for the week ending Dec. 4 by workers across the nation, a decrease of 43,000 from the previous week.

According to the report, the 184,00 initial claims filed is the lowest level since Sept. 6, 1969, when 182,000 new claims were filed.

In Massachusetts, however, there were 7,726 initial claims filed for the week ending Dec. 4, showing an increase of 871 claims filed from the previous week. There were 6,855 initial claims filed the week ending Nov. 27.

For uninsured claims, the state saw an increase of 1,775 claims filed for the week ending Nov. 27 for a total of 56,463, compared to 54,688 filed the previous week.

Massachusetts, according to the report, had one of the highest insured unemployment rates for the week ending Nov. 20 at 1.7%.

The state saw an increase of 80 continued claims filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for the week ending Nov. 20. There were 404 continued claims filed the week ending Nov. 13, according to the report.

The report shows Massachusetts saw an increase of 28 Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation continued claims filed from Nov. 13’s total of 266 to Nov. 20’s total of 294. On Nov. 6, there were 266 claims filed, and 381 on Oct. 30.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the state’s unemployment rate is 5.3%, ranking 32nd in the nation for the month of October. The organization reported the national unemployment rate stood at 4.6%, which was 0.2% lower than September and 2.3% lower than in October 2020.

Disclaimer: This content is distributed by The Center Square