- Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development
Media Contact for Massachusetts Weekly Unemployment Claimant Data 10-22-20
Charles Pearce, Director of Communications - Exec. Office of Labor and Workforce Development
MASSACHUSETTS — Massachusetts Weekly Unemployment Claimant Data
From October 11 to October 17, Massachusetts had 44,498 individuals file an initial claim for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) an increase of 5,460 over the previous week. This is the fifth week in a row of increasing initial claims filings. Increases were seen in almost all sectors. Known industries with the highest increase in filings were Professional and Technical Services, up 674; Finance and Insurance, 671 higher; and Manufacturing, plus 510. The highest over the week increase of 1,498 filings occurred in the sector with no industry information available. A total of 1,421,775 initial claim for regular UI have been filed since March 15. Continued weeks claimed for week ending October 17, at 244,989, were down 15,492 or 5.9 percent over the previous week.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims filed from October 11 to October 17, at 11,614, were 136 claims higher than the previous week. Since April 20, 2020, 825,132 claimants have filed an initial claim for the PUA.
The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which provided up to 13 weeks of extended benefits, was implemented on May 21. For the week ending October 17, 18,133 initial claims were filed, a decrease of 4,237 over the previous week, the third consecutive week of declining PEUC filings. Since implementation, PEUC filings now total 255,062.
Initial Claims Filed
Industry |
Week Ending 10/10 |
Week Ending 10/17 |
Change |
% Change |
Agriculture, Forestry, |
123 |
116 |
-7 |
-5.7% |
Mining |
8 |
15 |
7 |
87.5% |
Utilities |
160 |
186 |
26 |
16.3% |
Construction |
1983 |
2253 |
270 |
13.6% |
Manufacturing |
2,279 |
2,789 |
510 |
22.4% |
Wholesale Trade |
1,481 |
1,623 |
142 |
9.6% |
Retail Trade |
2,650 |
2,759 |
109 |
4.1% |
Transportation & |
999 |
1,051 |
52 |
5.2% |
Information |
855 |
981 |
126 |
14.7% |
Finance & Insurance |
2455 |
3126 |
671 |
27.3% |
Real Estate |
561 |
692 |
131 |
23.4% |
Professional and |
4137 |
4811 |
674 |
16.3% |
Management of |
271 |
322 |
51 |
18.8% |
Administrative & |
1528 |
1691 |
163 |
10.7% |
Education |
2243 |
2738 |
495 |
22.1% |
Health & Social |
5122 |
5285 |
163 |
3.2% |
Arts, Entertainment & |
439 |
521 |
82 |
18.7% |
Food & Accommodation |
1808 |
1838 |
30 |
1.7% |
Other Services |
1869 |
1865 |
-4 |
-0.2% |
Public Administration |
3183 |
3454 |
271 |
8.5% |
Information Not Available |
4,884 |
6,382 |
1,498 |
30.7% |
Initial claims by industry

Continued weeks claimed by industry

Industry share of CWC in most recent week


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 10th rather than the week ending October 17th.
Claimants by Gender


Claimants by Ethnicity


Claimants by Race


###