Boston Globe: "Massachusetts jobless fund is $115 million in the red"

"After months of delay, the Baker administration chose New Year’s Eve to deliver the news: The state fund that pays jobless benefits has a deficit of about $115 million.

Trying to bury bad news just before the weekend or a holiday is standard PR practice for companies and politicians alike. But you know what? Governor Charlie Baker’s team chose a sleepy Friday and last day of the year to release news that is . . . not too bad.

It’s no surprise the Massachusetts unemployment insurance trust fund is in the red after the state paid out a total of $22 billion in jobless benefits in 2020 and $11.8 billion in 2021. In 2019, payments ran about $1.6 billion."

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/31/business/massachusetts-jobless-fund-is-115-million-red/

The administration of Governor Charlie Baker hasn't provided a timetable or amount for a potential sale of bonds to help replenish the state's unemployment insurance trust fund. JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF

"The activity in the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund during COVID was historic"

"THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION on Friday gave lawmakers its most detailed accounting yet of the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund, and said it is preparing to issue bonds to put the fund on sound financial footing.

“We will have to bond. There is no doubt,” said Rosalin Acosta, the secretary of labor and workforce development, in a presentation to the Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee.

Acosta didn’t provide a full accounting of the fund — she promised that by the end of the month — but she did provide more information than she has in months. The Baker administration stopped issuing a monthly report on the unemployment insurance trust fund’s financial status in June and pushed the Legislature to use $1 billion in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to bolster the fund’s finances.

The Legislature in the spring also gave the governor the authority to issue up to $7 billion in bonds to deal with any shortfall in the fund. At the time, the expectation was that the fund was deep in the red and the assumption was that bond proceeds would make the fund whole while lessening the financial blow on businesses. Instead of having to pay off any fund deficit immediately, the bonds would allow businesses to pay the deficit off over the multi-decade life of the bonds."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/state-government/acosta-says-bond-money-needed-for-ui-trust-fund/

Boston Globe: "The long, slow return of the Mass. job market"

"The state’s economic recovery from the COVID shock of 2020 is nearly complete, with one important exception: the job market.

The Massachusetts economy — the value of goods and services produced — is bigger now than it was before the pandemic. Personal incomes are higher and so are retail sales.

Most key measures of employment, however, have not returned to their February 2020 marks, and the gains since the bottom of the recession have lagged behind the national average.

But data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics offers some encouragement. Employment growth is continuing to rebound, albeit at a modest pace, from the summer setback caused by the Delta variant. More people are joining the workforce. The worker shortage persists but is easing."

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/19/business/states-tight-labor-market-continues-ease-hiring-speeds-up/

Massachusetts employers are finding it easier to hire workers.JENNY KORNREICH

New York Times: "The Economic Rebound Is Still Waiting for Workers"

"Fall was meant to mark the beginning of the end of the labor shortage that has held back the nation’s economic recovery. Expanded unemployment benefits were ending. Schools were reopening, freeing up many caregivers. Surely, economists and business owners reasoned, a flood of workers would follow.

Instead, the labor force shrank in September. There are five million fewer people working than before the pandemic began, and three million fewer even looking for work.

The slow return of workers is causing headaches for the Biden administration, which was counting on a strong economic rebound to give momentum to its political agenda. Forecasters were largely blindsided by the problem and don’t know how long it will last."

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/business/economy/us-economy.html

Danielle Miess lost her job at a travel agency in the Philadelphia area. Her unemployment benefits have run out, but she isn’t looking for another office job. Instead, she is cobbling together a living from a variety of gigs.Credit...Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times

Workforce insights: "They’ll go back to work when they feel safe – and well-compensated"

"The anemic September employment report, with only 194,000 jobs added, illustrates the extent to which the recovery stalled as coronavirus cases surged last month, but it also signals something deeper: America’s unemployed are still struggling with child-care and health issues, and they are reluctant to return to jobs they see as unsafe or undercompensated.

For months, economists predicted a surge in hiring in September as unemployment benefits expired for millions of workers and schools reopened across the country. Instead, last month marked the weakest hiring this year, and an alarming number of women had to stop working again to deal with unstable school and child-care situations.

The numbers are striking: 309,000 women over age 20 dropped out of the labor force in September, meaning they quit work or halted their job searches. In contrast, 182,000 men joined the labor force, Labor Department data showed."

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/08/september-jobs-report-takeaway/

Workforce insights: "They’ll go back to work when they feel safe – and well-compensated"

Inside the job market on Labor Day 2021

"A mystery sits at the heart of the economic recovery: There are 10 million job openings, yet more than 8.4 million unemployed are still actively looking for work.

The job market looks, in some ways, like a boom-time situation. Business owners complain they can’t find enough workers, pay is rising rapidly, and customers are greeted with “please be patient, we’re short-staffed” signs at many stores and restaurants.

But the nation remains in the midst of a deadly pandemic with covid-19 hospitalizations back at their highest rates since January. The surge is weighing on the labor market again, with a mere 235,000 jobs added in August. There are still 5 million fewer jobs compared to before the pandemic, reflecting ongoing problems, including child care as some schools and day cares shut down again from outbreaks.

..... 

At heart, there is a massive reallocation underway in the economy that’s triggering a “Great Reassessment” of work in America from both the employer and employee perspectives. Workers are shifting where they want to work — and how. For some, this is a personal choice. The pandemic and all of the anxieties, lockdowns and time at home have changed people. Some want to work remotely forever. Others want to spend more time with family. And others want a more flexible or more meaningful career path. It’s the “you only live once” mentality on steroids. Meanwhile, companies are beefing up automation and redoing entire supply chains and office setups."

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/04/ten-million-job-openings-labor-shortage/

job openings exceed the number of unemployed

"the end of the federal unemployment benefits may not lead to a huge surge in employment"

"MORE THAN 300,000 Massachusetts residents will lose federal unemployment insurance benefits at the end of this week, and no one is sure what that will mean for them or the state.

The federal government is pulling the plug on the benefits, which include an extra $300 a week, extra weeks, and a special program for gig workers and the self-employed. The end of the programs means the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of income for the 300,000 Massachusetts residents and the state’s economy."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/economy/reckoning-coming-as-fed-unemployment-benefits-ending

 

"the end of the federal unemployment benefits may not lead to a huge surge in employment"

The Washington Post: "How the pandemic set back women’s progress in the global workforce"

"The first year of the pandemic knocked 54 million women around the world out of work, widening the gender gap in employment. It could take years for that gap to narrow again. 

Of the women who lost jobs in 2020, almost 90 percent exited the labor force completely, compared with around 70 percent of men. 

How did this happen? Country-level data offers clues. The Washington Post analyzed available data and focused on three countries that offered revealing case studies: Peru, Thailand and France."

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/coronavirus-women-work?itid=hp_orw-hp-2021

Found via Twitter:  https://t.co/oElQCSG1wO

Huapaya worked during the early months of the pandemic at a restaurant, where she cut her hand on a bottle. She now works as a house cleaner twice a month and as a nanny for another family and sells meals on Sundays. (Daniela Rivera Antara for The Washington Post)

“Massachusetts is going to be ground zero for the next wave of this fight”

"A fight that became the most expensive ballot measure in California’s history has arrived in full force in Massachusetts, setting the stage for a potentially costly campaign that could reshape the state’s labor law and how hundreds of thousands of workers operate under it.

The question of whether Uber drivers, DoorDash delivery people, and other so-called gig economy workers should be classified as independent contractors or employees has already reared its head in litigation and at the State House, where a bill backed by the major ride-hailing companies is working through Beacon Hill’s legislative gears.

But the emergence of two similarly named but opposing coalitions — each claiming the backing of app-based workers — is seeding a potential ballot question fight next fall, when voters could be asked to decide how the workers should be treated."

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/22/metro/mass-poised-be-ground-zero-high-stakes-gig-economy-battle-potential-ballot-question-looms/

REQUEST - 50+ Program seeks employers for practice hiring event

The 50+ Job-seekers Networking Group is setting up its ultimate event for the Spring 2020 sessions --- Practice Interview With Employers -- to be held on June 24th, 2021; 10-12N [Eastern Time].

We seek employers and recruiters willing to participate by conducting practice interviews.

As we did last year, we will supply some suggested interview questions, but recall how many employers used their own favorites!

 Please let me or our director, Susan D Kelly, know if you would be willing to donate your time and talent to help us with this special event that assists mature job-seekers and career-changers.

Susan's contact info is:

Phone: 781-378-0528

LI Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susandkelly/

Email: susan@sdkelly.com

Susan has told me that many of the employers who participated last years have already signed on again. I look forward to hearing from more employers during this exciting time as the economy re-opens.

Thanks!

Ed Lawrence

 

REQUEST - 50+ Program seeks employers for practice hiring event

Boston Globe: "On unemployment in Mass.? You’ll soon be required to look for a job"

"As the state edges closer to a full reopening, the Baker administration on Thursday announced it will reinstate a requirement that anyone receiving unemployment benefits actively search for a job, effective June 15.

Searching for a job was long required of those on unemployment until the pandemic struck, forcing the closings of many businesses and workplaces and wiping out hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The requirement was dropped last spring in recognition to how futile it would be as the state continued to lose jobs.

But the picture has improved since a year ago, when more than 500,000 people were on unemployment."

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/20/business/unemployment-mass-youll-soon-be-required-look-job/

"today this action does not rely on federal money"

 

"THE HOUSE APPROVED a proposal Tuesday that aims to relieve employers this spring from major unexpected unemployment system costs, while punting the decision on whether to deploy one-time federal funds to address a benefits system that sagged under the weight of pandemic unemployment.

In a move that business groups described as a solid first step, representatives voted 157-0 to shuffle the distribution of unemployment claims costs so that they can be covered over two decades of borrowing and so businesses will not be in line for huge bills in the short term.

After weeks of review, the House on Tuesday also revived plans for an emergency paid leave program that would make participants eligible for up to one week of paid leave if they or a family member needs it to deal with COVID-19 issues, including self-isolation, seeking a diagnosis, or obtaining an immunization. The House sent the bill to the Senate after rejecting amendments to the measure sought by Gov. Charlie Baker."

Continue reading online ->

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/state-government/house-gives-businesses-unemployment-insurance-relief/

 

Direct link to House Legislation ->  https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/H3702

 

 

“Putting Humpty Dumpty back together again is a monumental task”

"About 8 million fewer people are working in the United States than before the pandemic hit and there are about 8 million job openings. That would seem to align perfectly for a booming and fast-healing labor market as the nation’s reopening accelerates.

It’s proving not nearly that simple.

“We have job fairs. We have ads going on everything from social media to Indeed, to the Globe and the Cape Cod Times. We’re not getting responses,” said DeWitt Davenport, chief executive of the Davenport Companies in South Yarmouth, which has had to scramble to hire housekeepers and other workers for its five Cape resorts. “This is something I’ve never seen in my entire life of 40 plus years of the hospitality industry on Cape Cod.”

COVID hit the economy last year like a category 5 hurricane, blasting away more than 22 million jobs, upending entire industries, and exposing deep inequities in pay and working conditions. The upheaval is dramatically reshaping the jobs market, leading many Americans, especially in the low-wage restaurant sector, to reconsider their careers, while causing government officials to reassess their policies and business owners to redouble their efforts to lure workers as pandemic restrictions disappear."

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/15/nation/why-reassembling-shattered-jobs-market-is-proving-so-difficult/

MA State News: unemployment insurance bill; cannabis local impact fee questioned

"Lawmakers find common ground on unemployment insurance bill"

"TIME-SENSITIVE LEGISLATION aimed at stabilizing the state’s unemployment system, providing targeted tax relief to employers and workers, and creating a COVID-19 emergency sick leave program requires one final vote in each chamber after the House and Senate reached agreement on the bill’s details Monday.

After hours of talks, lawmakers ironed out differences between the underlying versions of the bill  to produce a compromise without a formal conference committee, teeing up the roughly $351 million bill and its $7 billion borrowing authorization to reach Gov. Charlie Baker as soon as Thursday.

The branches agreed on most aspects of the bill in their respective versions, but took different approaches to tax breaks on unemployment benefits, a commission studying the unemployment system, and length of the special obligation bonds that will be issued to help the state cover massive demands on its benefits system."

Continue reading the article online  https://commonwealthmagazine.org/economy/lawmakers-find-common-ground-on-unemployment-insurance-bill/

"3% cannabis impact fee covers costs that don’t exist"

"IN 2017, Massachusetts lawmakers revised the cannabis legalization ballot measure approved by voters the year before.  They made improvements, such as expanding the Cannabis Control Commission from three members to five, and increasing the local tax option from 2 percent to 3 percent.

They also made mistakes, including mandating host community agreements between municipalities and cannabis operators that allowed towns to collect an additional 3 percent of gross sales.  This stream of funds was meant to offset costs imposed upon the municipality “by the operation of the marijuana establishment.”

After more than two years of legal cannabis sales, it’s hard to make a case that towns have incurred any such costs.  There have been no reported incidents of sales to minors, no reports of increased crime around cannabis stores, no reported increase in cannabis-intoxicated driving arrests, no reported impacts on nearby businesses or neighborhoods, and no reported staffing or budget increases in police, fire, or health departments attributable to cannabis stores."

Continue reading the article online 

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/3-cannabis-impact-fee-covers-costs-that-dont-exist/

 

MA State News: Unemployment insurance bill avoids issue; MCAS can't be skipped per Feds

 

"Unemployment insurance bill kicks the can"

"A BILL BEING CONSIDERED  by the state Legislature to freeze businesses’ unemployment insurance payments may be a short-term fix, but it does not solve the longer-term problem of how to keep the fund solvent in the future.

“This is a perfectly reasonable, short-term fix for our unemployment insurance shortfall, but it’s a missed opportunity to address the fact that we were underfunding this system well before the COVID crisis,” Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, said after the bill was released."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/state-government/unemployment-insurance-bill-kicks-the-can/

 

 

"Riley says feds won’t let Massachusetts skip MCAS"

AS SCHOOL OFFICIALS have been pressuring the state to cancel this year’s MCAS tests, state education commissioner Jeff Riley said the decision is not his – it belongs to the federal government.  

“The federal government is still requiring we test our students,” Riley said, speaking at a Tuesday budget hearing before the Ways and Means Committees. “It provides a little wiggle room but won’t allow us to not test kids.” 

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/education/riley-says-feds-wont-let-massachusetts-skip-mcas/

 

CommonWealth Magazine: "Why is the state’s technology so bad?

“THE…DISASTER WAS completely avoidable, as administrators knew the system was not ready, yet decided to launch it anyway… Investigations cannot undo the taxpayer dollars wasted and the disruption of families’ access to health care.”

That comment could have been voiced recently by critics of the state’s troubled vaccine finder website – but it wasn’t. It was actually a critique of the state’s disastrous rollout of the Health Connector website in 2014, built under then-Gov. Deval Patrick. The speaker was then-gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker – now the governor in charge of the Vaxfinder website best known for the four-armed orange octopus that appeared when it crashed.

There are significant differences between the debacles. The Health Connector website failure cost hundreds of millions of dollars and, in its initial form, never worked. The state had to give hundreds of thousands of people temporary Medicaid coverage because it couldn’t figure out what insurance they were eligible for. The Vaxfinder website cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and ultimately, it has worked, with tens of thousands of people using it to sign up for vaccine appointments, despite the difficulties."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/technology/why-is-the-states-technology-so-bad/

The article goes into some history on problems with State systems. Let's take it this way: What State system actually works the way it should? Your answers welcomed in the comments, on Facebook, Twitter or email.

 

"employers cut 140,000 jobs in December alone and all of them were held by women"

 

"WOMEN ENDED 2020 with 5.4 million fewer jobs than they had in February 2020, prior to the start of the pandemic. December unemployment figures showed that employers cut 140,000 jobs in December alone and all of them were held by women. The “shecession” of 2020 has thrown into stark relief the barriers that keep the gender/racial wage gap alive for working women. The data tells a story but what paints the picture is the decades-long reality for working women laid bare for all to see in the last year.

The overwhelming inequities that make upward mobility at work such an uneven climb for women – harassment, lack of childcare and paid leave, unequal expectations compared to their male co-workers – are not new. This time, however, they are hard to ignore. Working from home on Zoom means that women are not privately managing this tightrope act anymore. And for those whose jobs don’t allow for remote work, it has meant leaving the workforce altogether, possibly setting back improvements in the wage and racial gap for years."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/shecession-means-the-jig-is-up/ 

Boston Globe: "Mass. offers Internet access help for unemployed"

 From the Boston Globe:

"Massachusetts is offering to help the unemployed find work by providing subsidies for Internet access, and in some cases doling out free equipment.

Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito announced a program Tuesday at the Springfield Innovation Center that will offer subsidies and tech assistance to unemployed residents, with the goal of helping them find work.

Unemployed individuals are eligible for a subsidy if they live in a Charter or Comcast service territory; residents of other communities may be eligible for a personal cellular hot spot from Verizon. The agency implementing the new service, MassHire, is also connecting individuals with a vendor that is handing out Chromebooks if they do not have a device at home."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/05/business/mass-offers-internet-access-help-unemployed/

Gov Baker tweeted Tuesday with the announcement as one of three made that day  https://twitter.com/MassGovernor/status/1346562007781298177

"Today our Administration launched 3 programs to boost internet connectivity for residents across MA:

• Rightwards arrow New subsidy to assist job-seekers within @MassHireCenter
•  who face tech barriers
• Rightwards arrow WiFi hotspots targeted to Gateway Cities
• Rightwards arrow Expanding @MassBroadband hotspots in Western MA"

 

3 programs to boost internet connectivity for residents across MA

So much for a deal, it still is waiting for a signature....

 The Boston Globe has the following:

"Unemployment benefits for millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet lapsed overnight as President Donald Trump refused to sign an end-of-year COVID relief and spending bill that had been considered a done deal before his sudden objections.

The fate of the bipartisan package remained in limbo Sunday as Trump continued to demand larger COVID relief checks and complained about “pork” spending. Without the widespread funding provided by the massive measure, a government shutdown would occur when money runs out at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

“It’s a chess game and we are pawns,” said Lanetris Haines, a self-employed single mother of three in South Bend, Indiana, who stood to lose her $129 weekly jobless benefit unless Trump signed the package into law or succeeded in his improbable quest for changes."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/27/nation/unemployment-benefits-expire-millions-trump-rages/

From The Guardian:

"As unemployment benefits were due to expire for millions of Americans on Saturday, Donald Trump, who spent Christmas playing golf in Florida, continued to block a $900bn pandemic relief bill that would extend them.

The package, which Congress passed with bipartisan support on Monday after months of negotiations, would keep unemployment benefits in place until March and expand state benefits by $300 a week – as well as extending an evictions moratorium, providing federal loans to small businesses and $600 direct payments to many Americans.

But without Trump’s signature, the entire package – set to be the second biggest in US history – is stalled and the US government now faces a shutdown on Tuesday."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/26/tump-us-coronavirus-relief-package-shutdown

 

Boston Globe: "State says it has recovered $242 million in fraudulent jobless claims"

From the Boston Globe, an article of interest for Franklin:

"The Baker administration said Friday that it has recovered more than $242 million in fraudulently issued unemployment benefits, in part the result of crime schemes first revealed last May.

The figures released in a statement are the latest tally of how many phony claims were filed and how much money the state has recovered.

Of the more than 2.3 million claims received since March, the administration said it has identified almost 172,000 fraudulent claims — or about 7.5 percent. The state has recovered about $1,400 per fraudulent claim.

The administration blamed an international criminal fraud ring targeting the state Department of Unemployment Assistance at a time when it was besieged with an unprecedented number of claims made by people laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/05/business/state-says-it-has-recovered-242-million-fraudulent-jobless-claims/