Mass unemployment could reach 8.1% in the next two years

BOSTON - November 20, 2008 - A U-Mass Boston public-policy professor says Massachusetts could see its unemployment rate rise to 8.1 percent in the next two years. The state lost 7,000 jobs last month, raising the jobless rate to 5.5 percent. Professor Allen Clayton Matthews says Massachusetts could lose as many as 135,000 jobs by the end of 2010. But Matthews says this recession won't be as bad as the last one. MATTHEWS: The federal government has been taking very strong and deliberate action and will take more in the form of fiscal stimulus. Matthews says federal aid to states, tax cuts, and more job insurance will help moderate the recession.