Cape, Western Mass. feel biggest pinch
Report finds Eastie hardest-hit in city with jobless rate at 33%
Massachusetts communities with high levels of poverty and those reliant on industries hard-hit by layoffs in response to the coronavirus outbreak are seeing unemployment rates as high as 40%, according to a recent report suggesting some regional economies will need more help to recover from the pandemic.
“This puts an emphasis on that fact that while there are very necessary tradeoffs when we do these lockdowns related to COVID-19 to get control and get information on what we are dealing with, the other side of it is that there are some communities, some towns, some neighborhoods suffering more than others,” said Pioneer Institute research analyst Rebekah Paxton, who authored the report.
Paxton’s report dug into which counties, municipalities and zip codes are experiencing the highest unemployment on a granular level. It’s data she says is critical for policymakers at the municipal level to determine the impact pandemicrelated unemployment will have on their communities and budgets.
The “COVID Unemployment Tracker” reveals Cape Cod and the islands, the Springfield area and Western Massachusetts are particularly hard hit. An Amherst zip code has an unemployment rate of 40% — the highest in the state.
Unemployment rates hit 28% in both Barnstable and Berkshire counties. On a municipal level, Provincetown has the highest unemployment rate at 33.8% followed by Lawrence at 32.6% and Amherst at 32.6%.
Wendy Northcross, Cape
Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO, said she’s “not surprised” to see unemployment cut deep across those regions. Both Cape Cod and the Berkshires have an “over-dependency” on tourism-related businesses — some of the hardest hit by pandemic business shutdowns. Restaurants alone employ roughly 13,000 people on Cape Cod, she said.
A Boston neighborhood hard-hit by coronavirus — East Boston — is also disproportionately suffering from unemployment, with a rate of 33% — the 10th highest in the state.
The tracker weekly relies on Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment insurance claim reports to estimate rates.
“It’s really important to at least see the estimates of what going on and how it might be different from municipality to municipality to understand how different areas of the state are affected and determining if a uniformed reopening and relief program is the best way to go,” Paxton said.
Northcross has asked the state to consider regionally based openings to get some businesses opened up faster.
“We stayed healthy and we can manage a summer influx,” Northcross said. The governor this week released a four-phase reopening plan.
Paxton said high unemployment rates appear to correlate with data on which sectors of the economy have been hardest hit with business closures and layoffs: retail, hospitality, health care and tourism.