Unemployment has for a long time been used as an indicator of a state’s health. In recent months, Massachusetts’ unemployment has been on the decline, but naturally the state has been working to drive the rate even lower. This week, Massachusetts’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported that the state’s jobless rate dropped to 8.1% in October. Not only is this the lowest unemployment rate for the state in 18 months, but it is also 1.5% lower than the national average. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/9iT5Vh)Last month, Massachusetts added over 10,000 jobs. Nationally, over 150,000 new jobs were created in October, meaning Massachusetts accounted for about 6.7% of new job creation last month.
“Job creation has been priority number one since day one,” Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick said. “Putting people to work will remain at the top of my agenda because, despite these positive developments, we have more to do.”
Education and health services gained the most jobs in October in
Massachusetts at plus 5,100. Leisure and hospitality ranked second in jobs created at plus 2,800 for the month, followed next by government with plus 1,500 jobs and manufacturing at plus 1,200 jobs. Finally, financial services gained 600 new jobs and the technology sector gained 400 jobs during October. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/9B1SJN)Of course not all industries showed employment gains in October. Construction lost 1,500 jobs last month, followed by professional and business services at minus 900 jobs and utilities at minus 500 jobs.
While it is apparent that some sectors are faring better than others in the state, the fact that Massachusetts’ unemployment has consistently remained below the national average is encouraging. With the effects of economic problems in Europe beginning to trickle back to the state, hopefully Massachusetts will continue to show a downward trend in unemployment moving forward.
[Sources: http://bit.ly/cbezDG, http://bit.ly/aDJwk6]
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