55K More Unemployment Claims As MA Businesses Stay Closed

BOSTON — The number of Massachusetts residents applying for first-time unemployment benefits during the week that ended May 2 was 55,488, according to Thursday's U.S. Department of Labor report.

It was the seventh weekly labor report since companies began laying off and furloughing workers in response to the economic downturn caused by the new coronavirus pandemic. Since the report for the week that ended March 21, 815,290 Massachusetts workers have filed for first-time unemployment benefits.

Some jobs in the state may come back as early as May 18, Gov. Charlie Baker said in a news conference Wednesday. Baker said the intention is for some businesses to reopen May 18 when the closure of nonessential business is lifted, but the state will need see "sustained downward trends" in health metrics for that to happen. Those metrics include the rate of positive coronavirus test rates, hospitalizations and deaths.

Nationally, 3.17 million people filed for unemployment in the week ending May 2. The number of claims fell from the 4.43 million the previous week. Before the unprecedented unemployment claims started in March, the worst week for national unemployment claims was 695,000 in 1982.

The biggest weekly claims number in Massachusetts during the Great Recession came in December 2008, when 22,028 people filed for unemployment during a single week. But in 2008, layoffs came in waves over the course of several months.

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