Greater Worcester's unemployment drops to 6.0%
Photo | Grant Welker
The Downtown Worcester Business Improvement District has prioritized sprucing up vacant storefronts with artwork.
The unemployment rate in the Worcester metropolitan area dropped to 6.0% in April, down from 6.7% in March, as the region continues its recovery from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Greater Worcester unemployment figure was 14.7% in April 2020, according to the BLS report released June 2, which defines the Worcester metropolitan area as Worcester County and Windham County, Conn.
Specifically, the bureau reports 20,890 unemployed members of the labor force, compared to 23,423 in March and 47,857 in April 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic wreaked its initial havoc on the economy.
These trends are on par with national figures, with BLS reporting that unemployment rates were lower in April 2021 than they were in April 2020 in all 389 metropolitan areas for which it tracks.
The national unemployment rate was 6.1% in April, while it was 6.5% in Massachusetts.
The diminishing unemployment rates come as the economy has officially begun to meaningfully reopen after over a calendar year of closures and heavy restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. The unemployment figures are still significantly above their pre-pandemic levels, including in Greater Worcester, where the unemployment rate in March 2020 was 3.4%.
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