Mass. unemployment rate holds steady for third consecutive month

The Massachusetts unemployment rate in April stayed steady for the third month in a row at 2.9% and is a full percentage point below the national rate of 3.9%.

April’s rate is down from the 3.2% unemployment rate from a year ago in April 2023, 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. 

The total Massachusetts workforce was 3.77 million in April, with 109,200 of those in the workforce being unemployed, according to BLS.

The month saw 10,100 residents more employed and 1,900 more unemployed. The workforce increased by an estimated 12,200 even with the state’s loss of an estimated 500 jobs. 

April saw a 0.2 percentage point increase in labor force participation, a category defined as the number of residents 16 years and older who worked or were unemployed and actively sought work in the last four weeks. This increase brought the state’s labor force participation rate to 65.1%, consistent with the rate in April 2023.  

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.