Expanding vocational and technical education opportunities, particularly for adults seeking career changes, will help Massachusetts rebuild its economy after the pandemic s devastation, Baker administration officials said Thursday.
Gov. Charlie Baker and his top deputies pitched the Career Technical Initiative program, which launched in January 2020 with a goal of training 20,000 skilled trades workers in four years, as a way to help close unemployment gaps that have widened in the COVID-19 era.
The statewide unemployment rate dropped to 6.8 percent in March, but it is far higher for people of color at an average 17.5 percent for Latino residents and 14.5 percent for Black residents, Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta said.
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Massachusetts employers are getting a one-month reprieve on higher unemployment insurance premiums, and the delay will give Beacon Hill time to resume work on a plan to address sticker shock issues left unresolved in a just-approved law.
The Department of Unemployment Assistance notified employers Thursday night that first quarter payments, which were due on April 30, will instead be due on June 1. The delay gives businesses more time to prepare to make larger payments, and the Legislature time to address a spike in jobless system solvency assessments, which surprised some policymakers.
In the notice to employers, Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta and DUA Director Richard Jeffers said the Baker administration is further evaluating the solvency rate increase and will provide more information at a later date. In an email to members, the Retailers Association of Massachusetts President Jon Hurst said the group had been informed that DUA would issue emergency
Business owners were caught by surprise last Tuesday when they received huge bills in the mail.
They were assured by the state Legislature and Gov. Charlie Baker that unemployment rates would be frozen for two years after the nightmare that was, and is, COVID-19. What no one realized, including lawmakers and the governor, was that solvency rates would rise exponentially.
Solvency rates are assessed on businesses and funneled into an unemployment trust fund, which is used to pay claims that can’t be attributed to a specific business. But during the pandemic, the trust fund was used to pay claims due to COVID-19, which left the fund depleted.
In some states, unemployment stays stubbornly high By Tim Henderson, Stateline.org
Share: Furloughed hospitality workers from the shuttered Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Fla., demonstrate to preserve their jobs as management mulls the hotel s reopening. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS)
The economic recovery is leaving millions of people behind, especially those with jobs depending on conventions, tourists and live performances.
“It is a very sad situation. I can see why many lose hope and give up,” said Zuleika Lee, a former trade show model and mixologist in Nevada who’s been without work since last March, when the pandemic shut down the convention centers and bars where she made her living.