On May 20th, the state released the unemployment rate for April 2022 and the revised rate for March 2022. Click here to read the May 20th state press release. Massachusetts' April rate decreased from March to 4.1 percent, 0.5 percentage point higher than the national rate. The MA labor force participation rate unchanged at 66 percent, up 0.6 percentage point from the prior year. The labor force increased by 600 from March. Since April 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates Massachusetts gained 178,400 jobs. The largest over the year gains occurred in Leisure and Hospitality; Professional, Scientific, and Business Services; and Education and Health Services. Financial services was the only sector to see losses. Click here to read the state press release. Local unemployment estimates for April were released on 5/24. The most recent local press release can be found here.

The Economic Policy Institute has updated their state unemployment statistics by race/ethnicity here.

On May 19th, the state released the monthly unemployment claim data for April. The state had 20,592 initial claims for regular unemployment insurance, an increase of 2,591 from the previous month. Most initial claims were in Transportation & Warehousing, Construction, and Health Care and Social Assistance. Continued weeks claimed decreased by 68,048 to 209,482. Most decreases were in Construction, Administrative & Waste, and Health Care and Social Assistance. Click here for the claims press release.

On May 17th, the House passed the WIOA 2022 Reauthorization package in on a mostly party line vote (4 Republicans voted with Democrats to pass). There were a few dozen amendments adopted, including a handful of bipartisan ones that made it through. A section by section summary of the bill can be found here.

A list of the Amendments voted on can be found here. One adopted amendment would allow states to deliver Wagner-Peyser Act services through local staff if the state was considered a demonstration state prior to the end of 2021 (this would impact four regions in MA). This bipartisan amendment was introduced by Rep. Crow (D-CO) and Rep. Buck (R-CO). It is highly unlikely that the Senate takes up this bill, so for now, we will wait and see what the next steps for reauthorization might be.

Earlier this month President Biden announced a new Affordable Connectivity Program which provides eligible households $30 per month off their internet bills. This program was made possible through the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress in November 2021. You can find out more information about the program here. MWA, as part of the Workforce Solutions Group, co-authored a white paper last spring which highlighted the need for additional investments in broadband and internet.

MWA joined the U.S. Department of Labor and other government agencies and partners in sharing resources, best practices, and approaches to supporting mental health in the workplace during their #MentalHealthAtWork twitter chat. Click here to view the chat. MWA collected many of the free resources and articles shared in a blog post and you can read that here.

There are so many job postings and funding announcements, we moved our News from Around the Sector section to our website, where you can access the news, jobs, funding announcements and more anytime throughout the month. Go to: www.massworkforce.com/around-the-sector.