MA Coronavirus: Another Record Week For Jobless Claims

BOSTON — The number of Massachusetts residents applying for first-time unemployment benefits during the week that ended March 28 was 181,062, up 21.9 percent from the prior week's record-breaking number of 148,452.

The new U.S. Department of Labor came the same week that Gov. Charlie Baker extended the closure of nonessential businesses until at least May 4. Bay State restaurants and hotels have been hit particularly hard, as they laid off 1,760 workers last week. But other sectors are not immune; earlier this week, for example, Macy's said it was furloughing most of its 130,000 workers in the United States.

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. In 2008, however, layoffs came in waves over the course of several months.

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Nationally, the number of people filing for jobless benefits was 6.6 million last week, up from 3.3 million the week before. Before this week's numbers were released, analysts had estimated the number of claims would be around 5 million. Before last week, the worst week for unemployment claims was 695,000 in 1982.

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