More Than 18,000 Leave Massachusetts Unemployment Rolls

MASSACHUSETTS — There were 389,361 Massachusetts residents collecting unemployment benefits during the week ended Aug. 29, down 18,015, or 4.4 percent, from 407,376 a week earlier, according to the weekly U.S. Department of Labor unemployment benefits report released Thursday.

That's good news for Massachusetts, which has had the highest unemployment rate in the country for two straight months and has been one of the hardest-hit states in terms of job losses since the coronavirus crisis started in March. The state's unemployment rate was 16.1 percent in July, down from 17.4 percent in June but well above the national rate of 10.2 percent.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to release August unemployment rates for Massachusetts and other states on Sept. 16. The national August unemployment rate was 8.4 percent.

The number of Massachusetts residents filing new unemployment claims for the week ended Aug. 29 was 18,151, down 417 from 18,568 a week earlier.

The improvement stems in part from the expiration of the federal government's $600-per-week addition to state unemployment claims. Many workers opted to continue collecting unemployment, even after their workplaces reopened, as state unemployment insurance combined with the federal supplement amounted to more than they would have made by returning to their jobs.

Economic historians say the peak unemployment rate in Massachusetts came during the Great Depression in 1934, when it hit 25 percent. During the Great Recession that started in December 2007, Massachusetts' unemployment topped out at 8.3 percent.

While Thursday's report is a closely-watched economic indicator, the report coming on Sept. 16 is based primarily on household surveys and is more comprehensive than the weekly unemployment claims released by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).