FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOSTON, MA (October 17, 2024) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy association including more than 5,000 members in the Commonwealth, reacted with concern but not surprise today to the new annual Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) report that warns the unemployment insurance (UI) trust fund could become insolvent by 2028 on its current trajectory.

“Massachusetts’ small businesses have argued since before the pandemic that state lawmakers need to get serious about the unemployment insurance crisis and enact reforms to address our highest-in-the-nation benefits level and lax eligibility requirements,” said NFIB State Director Christopher Carlozzi. “Instead of allocating ample federal covid funds when available, they shifted the financial costs to employers through higher unemployment insurance taxes, a heavy burden on the Commonwealth’s Main Street businesses.”

“It was the government that mandated shutdowns and work restrictions, and lawmakers should have fully leveraged the federal COVID relief ARPA dollars as they were intended,” continued Carlozzi, who noted the average NFIB member employs ten people. “Now, the politicians have saddled this burden on Massachusetts small business owners and set the UI trust fund onto an insolvency crisis, as this new report makes clear. Making matters worse is the uncertainty surrounding $2.5 billion that still may be owed to the federal government.”

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For 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.