Central Mass. unemployment rates decrease after early-year rises
Photo | Grant Welker
Downtown Worcester in the middle of a weekday during the coronavirus shut down
After months of growing unemployment across Central Massachusetts communities, rates decreased in all three of the region’s metropolitan areas tracked by the state between February and March.
In the Greater Worcester metro area, unemployment was down three-tenths of a percentage point from February and came in at a reported 4.1% for March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. The unemployment rate for the Worcester area was also lower in March than it was in January, when it was 4.2%, though it is still above December’s rate of 3.4%.
Between December and January, unemployment rose almost a full percentage point across Central Massachusetts regions.
For the Framingham area, unemployment was at 3.3% in March, down from 3.6% in February.
The Leominster-Gardner area saw unemployment decrease to 4.8% in March from 5.2% in February.
Statewide, the unadjusted unemployment rate for March was 3.9%, per U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates. In February, the revised statewide estimate for this rate was 4.2%.
Nationwide, unemployment for March was estimated at 3.6%.
Fifteen of the 24 labor markets included in the data gained jobs between February and March. The Worcester metro area added 1,000 jobs, the Framingham area added 800, and the Leominster-Gardner area added 100.
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