Updated: April 30, 2020
About 20% of Mass. workers have now filed for unemployment
Photo | Grant Welker
The Solomon Pond Mall in Marlborough has been empty for weeks since the coronavirus pandemic forced non-essential businesses to close.
By Grant Welker
Nearly 71,000 more Massachusetts workers filed new unemployment claims last week, pushing the six-week total during the coronavirus pandemic past 720,000.
The new unemployment figures released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor show a continued downward trend in new claims since a peak of more than 180,000 in the week ending March 28, when many business closures first went into effect. The state's total claims so far though — 722,576 — makes up roughly 20% of the state's non-farm labor force.
In the week ending April 25, claims in Massachusetts were highest in retail (10,085), food and accommodation (7,515), and health and social assistance (9,271), according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
Nationally, new claims fell, too, but also remained at startlingly high levels.
More than 3.8 million workers filed new claims last week, down about 16% from the prior week. Nearly 30 million Americans have filed claims in the past six weeks. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 12.4% for the week ending April 18, a level the Department of Labor said marks the highest level of the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate since such tracking began.
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