Mass. unemployment ticked upward in October
Photo | Courtesy of Rentschler Biopharma
The Massachusetts unemployment rate rose slightly in October to 3.7%.
While unemployment in Massachusetts was back on the rise in October, the statewide rate remained lower than the nation’s for the second month in a row.
The seasonally unadjusted Massachusetts unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 3.7% in October from September, reflecting a rate more than a full percentage point higher than in October 2023 when unemployment sat at 2.6%.
At the same time, the state’ rate was 0.2 percentage points lower than the nation’s in October, which held consistent for the past two months at 3.9%, 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.
Back on the rise, the state’s labor force grew by 21,751 to 3.83 million in October, a trend in congruence with the state’s labor force participation rate, 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, which grew over-the-month by 2,698 in October to 5.80 million.
The leisure and hospitality industry had the largest job increase in October, securing 1,600 more jobs over the month with 7,700 added over the year. The financial activities industry saw the second-highest job gain last month, gaining 1,300 jobs, while the construction and manufacturing industries each experienced the third-highest job increase, at 300 jobs added each.
The education and health services industry lost 1,700 jobs over the month, the most of the 10 industries analyzed by the BLS, yet still managed to gain 16,800 over the year. The government industry lost 1,000 jobs in October while the trade, transportation, and utilities industry lost 800.
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.
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