Massachusetts ended the summer with a slight dip in unemployment in August following three consecutive months of rate increases.
August’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 4.5%, a rate 0.1 percentage points higher than the national average for the second month in a row, according to a Friday press release from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
August’s unemployment drop comes as the state experienced its highest labor force participation rate since January 2020. Defined as the number of residents 16 years and older who worked or were unemployed and actively sought work in the last four weeks, the Massachusetts labor force participation rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 66.3% in August, reflecting a 1.3 percentage point increase over-the-year.
With 5,300 more residents employed and 10,300 more residents unemployed over-the-month, 3,749,700 residents were employed throughout the commonwealth in August.
Construction experienced the largest job increase over the month, gaining 1,600 in August, while the trade, transportation, and utilities industry and education and health services industry both tied for second, each gaining 1,400 jobs over-the-month.
Leisure and hospitality lost 2,900 jobs over the month, the most of the 10 sectors analyzed by the BLS. A distant second was the information industry, which saw an over-the-month loss of 1,200 jobs.
Since unemployment rate estimates are gathered through a monthly sample of households and job estimates are collected via a monthly sample survey of employers, the two statistics may show divergent monthly trends, according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
