Mass. unemployment decreases to 9.6%
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Downtown Worcester
The unemployment rate in Massachusetts dropped slightly in September, coming in at 9.6%, compared to an August rate of 11.4%, according to a Friday report from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
That figure is 1.7 percentage points above a national unemployment rate of 7.9%. In June and July, Massachusetts had the worst unemployment rate in the country, before improving in August to the sixth worst, beating out the likes of Nevada and Rhode Island. Massachusetts was the seventh worst for September.
At the same time as the September unemployment rate improved to 9.6%, the state’s labor force increased by 240,900, from 3,548,600 in August, according to the report. Some 279,000 more residents were employed over the month, and 38,000 fewer residents were unemployed.
[Related: The improving Mass. unemployment rate masking rising jobless claims]
The September figures estimate 3,424,200 Massachusetts residents were employed and 365,400 were unemployed, for a total labor force of 3,789,600.
The state’s labor force participation rate, which includes the working age population who are both employed and unemployed, was up 4.2 percentage points over the month, coming in at 66.9%. However, the participating rate was down by 40,200, compared to September 2019.
The Massachusetts unemployment rate was at historic lows in the months leading into the coronavirus pandemic, typically hovering around 3%. Once Gov. Charlie Baker shut down portions of the economy in March in an effort to stem the spread of the virus, that metric kicked upward.
The unemployment rate in the Worcester area improved to 10.3% in August, down from 14.9% a month earlier. The Fitchburg, Leominster and Gardner area had a rate of 12.6%.
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