Mass. adds 9,400 jobs; unemployment up slightly
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Rebounding from a weak August, when the state lost nearly 5,000 jobs, Massachusetts employers bounced back in September, adding 9,400 jobs, the Patrick administration announced Thursday.
But despite that rebound, the Bay State unemployment rate ticked upward to 6 percent (up 0.2 percent), the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) reported. That’s slightly higher than the national rate of 5.9 percent.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), September’s job growth was led by 10,700 new jobs in the trade, transportation and utilities sector, which was buoyed by the end of August’s “temporary disruptions in the retail trade,” an apparent reference to the ownership troubles that enveloped the Market Basket grocery chain that ended with Arthur T. Demoulas winning control of the company. Market Basket operates 71 stores, 42 of them in Massachusetts, and seven in Central Massachusetts.
In other sectors, gains for the month were not as robust, with information adding 1,900 jobs (up 2.1 percent), leisure and hospitality gaining 1,000 (up 0.3 percent) and professional, scientific and business services adding 800 (up 0.2 percent).
Meanwhile, slight losses were seen in several key industries in Central Massachusetts. The education and health services segment lost 4,800 jobs (down 0.6 percent) in September, manufacturing lost 700 (down 0.3 percent), and the “other services” category lost 800 jobs (down 0.6 percent).
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