- Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development
Media Contact for Massachusetts Weekly Unemployment Claimant Data 12-10-20
Charles Pearce, Director of Communications - Exec. Office of Labor and Workforce Development
MASSACHUSETTS — Massachusetts Weekly Unemployment Claimant Data
For the week ending December 5, 2020, Massachusetts had 25,831 individuals file an initial claim for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) an increase of 2,100 over the previous week. Increases were widespread among all sectors. The largest increases in initial claim filings for the week were seen in food and accommodation, 614 higher; administrative and waste services, up 449; information not available sector (either lacking industry or employer information), 351 more; and retail trade, plus 271. Since March 15, a total of 1,681,088 initial claims for regular UI have been filed. Continued weeks claimed for the week ending December 5 at 170,642 were down 4,661 or 2.7 percent less over the previous week. Continued weeks claimed has not shown an increase since the week of June 7 to 13.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims filed from November 29 to December 5, at 7,987 were 715 claims more than the previous week. PUA initial claims filings have been decreasing in the previous five weeks. A total of 888,043 claimants have filed an initial claim for the PUA since April 20, 2020.
The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which provided up to 13 weeks of extended benefits, was implemented on May 21. For the tenth consecutive week, PEUC initial claims filed decreased over the previous week. For the week ending December 5 at 8,662 were 1,120 less. Since implementation, PEUC filings now total 334,976.
The federal/state Extended Benefits (EB) program, which triggered on May 3 due to the high volume of claims, for the week ending December 5 had 3,138 claims filed, just 7 claims more than the previous week. Since the week of September 6, the first week EB claims were filed, a total of 28,092 individuals filed an EB initial claim.
Initial Claims Filed
Industry |
Week Ending 11/28 |
Week Ending 12/05 |
Change |
% Change |
Agriculture, Forestry, |
102 |
164 |
62 |
60.8% |
Mining |
21 |
19 |
-2 |
-9.5% |
Utilities |
72 |
62 |
-10 |
-13.9% |
Construction |
2,054 |
2,264 |
210 |
10.2% |
Manufacturing |
1,196 |
1,244 |
48 |
4.0% |
Wholesale Trade |
657 |
693 |
36 |
5.5% |
Retail Trade |
1,602 |
1,873 |
271 |
16.9% |
Transportation & |
906 |
858 |
-48 |
-5.3% |
Information |
418 |
328 |
-90 |
-21.5% |
Finance & Insurance |
931 |
770 |
-161 |
-17.3% |
Real Estate |
273 |
337 |
64 |
23.4% |
Professional and |
1,936 |
1,835 |
-101 |
-5.2% |
Management of |
185 |
203 |
18 |
9.7% |
Administrative & |
1,399 |
1,848 |
449 |
32.1% |
Education |
976 |
967 |
-9 |
-0.9% |
Health & Social Assistance |
2,344 |
2,418 |
74 |
3.2% |
Arts, Entertainment & |
453 |
644 |
191 |
42.2% |
Food & Accommodation |
2,187 |
2,801 |
614 |
28.1% |
Other Services |
1,220 |
1,368 |
148 |
12.1% |
Public Administration |
1,188 |
1,173 |
-15 |
-1.3% |
Information Not Available |
3,611 |
3,962 |
351 |
9.7% |
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 November 28th rather than the week ending December 5th.
Claimants by Gender


Claimants by Ethnicity


Claimants by Race


###