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Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New job seekers nudge unemployment rate up to 4.6%
BOSTON (SHNS) – The statewide unemployment rate climbed again in April to 4.6%, slightly widening the gap with the national joblessness rate, labor officials said Friday. Citing federal data, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development announced that unemployment in Massachusetts rose two-tenths of a percentage point from March to April. The national unemployment rate remained level at 4.2% in that span. It was the fourth straight month that both the labor force and the unemployment rate grew. Compared to April 2024, the labor force included about 52,000 more people and the unemployment rate was 0.7 percentage points higher. Employers also added about 7,700 jobs in April, according to results of a different monthly labor survey, building on the 2,800 positions added in March. Department of Economic Research Chief Economist Mark Rembert said Friday that the job market remained stable 'despite economic headwinds.' 'The unemployment rate edged up, but most significantly, we haven't seen an uptick in layoffs or new unemployment claims, meaning the uptick is being driven by more people entering the workforce and looking for work,' Rembert said in a statement. While employment is relatively stable, many businesses have voiced low confidence in the local economic outlook amid uncertainty about federal spending and tariffs. Economists have also forecast sluggish growth in Massachusetts. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
25-04-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Unemployment benefits in Massachusetts extended after state law triggered
By Alison Kuznitz, State House News Service People filing new unemployment claims this week, as well as eligible existing claimants, can now receive benefits for up to 30 weeks, up from the previous maximum benefit period of 26 weeks. An extension of jobless benefits is triggered under state law when the unemployment rate in any of the commonwealth's seven metropolitan statistical areas exceeds a 5.1% threshold, measured across a 12-month average, according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. New federal data show the Springfield area hit an unemployment rate of 5.2%. "This change is required by state law that was passed in 2003. The [Department of Unemployment Assistance] will be in communication with claimants on next steps," EOLWD spokesperson Matt Kitsos said in a statement to the News Service on Tuesday. "Our administration is working with stakeholders and our state and local partners as we conduct a comprehensive review of the UI Trust Fund and implement our new, modernized online system to best serve the residents of Massachusetts. We will continue to connect skilled workers with employers, train and prepare future talent, and make life more affordable for everyone." Unemployment rate in Massachusetts Since July 2023, Bay Staters have been eligible for a shorter benefit window of 26 weeks due to a lower level of unemployment. That change kicked in after all metro areas logged unemployment rates at or below 5.1%. The 12-month unemployment average is currently below 5% in the other six metro areas, according to EOLWD. The Barnstable area trails closest to Springfield, at 4.9%. The National Federation of Independent Business, which called attention to the benefit period extension before state officials confirmed it Tuesday, urged lawmakers to tackle unemployment insurance reform. Business groups like NFIB contend that employers are strained by steep costs from the unemployment system, including due to large benefit amounts and broad eligibility parameters. "The cracks in our broken unemployment insurance system are now becoming chasms," Christopher Carlozzi, Massachusetts state director for NFIB, said in a statement. "This is yet another example of the Commonwealth's outlier policies compounding a worsening UI crisis, as we are the ONLY state in the nation that allows recipients to collect 30 weeks of benefits." The statewide unadjusted unemployment rate for March was 5%, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is 0.8 percentage points above the nationwide unadjusted unemployment rate of 4.2%, EOWLD said. The statewide seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in March was 4.4%, compared to a national rate of 4.2%. The state's labor participation in March was nearly 67%, which is 4.1 percentage points above the national average, EOLWD said. Earlier this month, the state DUA published the latest quarterly report about the trust fund used to pay joblessness benefits, again projecting the account funded by a tax on employers will dip into the red by 2028. Private sector jobs lost in Massachusetts On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance pointed out that data from the state's Department of Economic Research (DER) showed Massachusetts had lost nearly 25,000 private sector jobs over the last year amid a major increase in state and local government jobs. "Private sector employers are facing rising energy costs, burdensome mandates, and an unfriendly business climate," Paul Craney, MassFiscal's executive director, said. "The state is doing serious long-term damage to its economic competitiveness. Every government job added without private sector growth is another step toward eventual fiscal ruin. Massachusetts needs a private sector comeback, not more bureaucrats on the state payroll." The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development later said the data displayed by DER and cited by Mass Fiscal was incorrect. After updating the DER website to accurately reflect numbers provided (and routinely revised) by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state said the net change in private sector jobs here between March 2024 and March 2025 was a decrease of 12,100 jobs, a number that corresponds with data provided directly by BLS. Between March 2024 and March 2025, some 400 federal workers here lost their jobs, while state government added 1,700 jobs. The local government sector also lost 300 jobs.
Boston Globe
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘We lose those folks, we lose part of our economy'
Advertisement President Trump called for mass deportations even before he took office, and immediately started allowing arrests of undocumented immigrants at schools, churches, and other previously protected places, sowing fear in immigrant communities even though such actions haven't taken place yet. He also issued an executive order Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The extension of temporary protected status, or TPS, of migrants from Venezuela was also terminated, leaving them legally vulnerable as early as April 7 — although a lawsuit has been filed — followed by the end of TPS for Haitians on Aug. 3. More restrictions are expected. In his first term, Trump tried unsuccessfully to revoke TPS for The effect of all of this could take a heavy toll in Massachusetts, which has the country's There are roughly 30,000 TPS holders in Massachusetts, about half of them from Haiti, according to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. Many new arrivals with temporary protections are working in health care, hospitality, manufacturing, and food service — caring for the elderly and those with disabilities, cleaning rooms, and assembling parts. This is the kind of physically demanding, low-wage work many Americans won't do, employment specialists say. Advertisement 'Those jobs are important for everything we do,' said Jeffrey Thielman, president of the International Institute of New England, which helped place more than 1,100 recent migrants in jobs in fiscal year 2024, 60 percent of them from Haiti. 'We lose those folks, we lose part of our economy.' Walldina, 25, a TPS holder from Haiti who works at a packing warehouse, is worried about losing this vital protection, which also granted her a work permit. 'It's hard,' said Walldina, in French, who asked that her last name not be used because of fears about her legal status. 'If TPS is stopped, we become illegal.' The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Immigrants with asylum or pending asylum claims remain protected. Nearly 6,400 people who are currently or were recently in emergency shelters have earned work authorization, and more than 4,800 are employed, according to the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. A number of local employers declined to speak, expressing concerns about exposing staffers with temporary status to scrutiny, especially after border czar Tom Homan said he was Some have stopped hiring, training, and making other labor-related decisions involving new immigrants. Others have already started firing workers. Weeks before Trump was inaugurated, around Advertisement In the last few months, a surge of fired immigrant workers have started showing up at workers' rights clinics, said Milagros Barreto, an organizer at La Colaborativa, a Latino immigrant social services organization in Chelsea. 'Unfortunately, employers are already starting to clean the house,' Barreto said. Northeast Arc, a developmental disabilities provider in Danvers that has struggled to fill jobs, hired 13 Haitian migrants last summer to work in residential programs, and had hoped to bring on more. For now, it's business as usual at the organization, but uncertainty fills the air. Northeast Arc brought in an immigration attorney to talk to employees about their rights and put plans in place in the event that federal immigration agents show up. If the Haitian workers' legal status is revoked, Northeast Arc would likely have to pay overtime to cover those positions or bring on expensive temp workers who aren't familiar with residents' needs, said chief human resources officer Mara Kaufman. If staffing falls too low, a home might have to close. 'If we were to lose this group of employees, it would pose a tremendous hardship,' she said. 'It's horrible because they've done nothing wrong.' The vast majority of immigrants with work authorization have jobs, said Mandy Townsend, senior vice president of employer engagement at the workforce development provider JVS Boston. And if TPS ends for Haitians in August, more than 10,000 workers could suddenly be in legal limbo. 'It makes no logical sense to me to remove a status for folks who are here legally, want to work, are able to work, and are doing critical jobs in our economy ' she said. 'Who are they going to be replaced by?' Advertisement JVS itself will be impacted if workers with temporary protections lose their legal status. Around 20 employees have TPS or are here on humanitarian parole, four of whom could lose their legal status this year. It's not just employers that would struggle if these workers were no longer on the payroll, said Kevin Brown, president of 32BJ SEIU in New England, whose members include as many as 1,000 cleaners, security guards, and airport workers with TPS. 'Immigrants contribute tremendous amounts of money to the New England economy,' he said. 'They rent, they buy houses, they buy food, they use transportation — all the things that keep the economy going.' Even if they lose their jobs, some people would try to stay and may turn to the government for assistance. This could have a 'snowball effect' on cities' finances, said Chelsea City Councilor Manuel Teshe, who represents the business district on Broadway, where foot traffic has plummeted in recent months. 'Donald Trump would be effectively making some cities come to a halt financially in terms of social services,' he said. The new immigration policies are putting employers in a difficult position, said Michael Goodman, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth: Fire employees who may be impossible to replace, or keep them on illegally and risk being raided by federal authorities. Either way, more people will be in the country without authorization, he said: 'It actually makes the problem that the federal government is claiming it wants to solve worse.' Advertisement Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio of the Globe staff contributed to this report. This story was produced by the Globe's team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter . Katie Johnston can be reached at
