Central Massachusetts will not receive its September or October unemployment rates this month due to the ongoing effects of the longest federal government shutdown in history.
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Central Massachusetts will not receive its September or October unemployment rates this month due to the ongoing effects of the longest federal government shutdown in history.
“Despite the federal government reopening, the effects of the shutdown continue to impact Massachusetts employment and labor force data. Please check back for revised release dates,” the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development says on its website.
The federal government reopened Nov. 13 after a 43-day shutdown.
Each month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles the unemployment data, has a schedule to provide states with the prior month’s unemployment figures. The EOLWD then interprets and releases Massachusetts’ data to the public.
Because of the shutdown, the BLS announced its September figures for individual states would not be published in October as originally scheduled, and would instead be provided in November. While the BLS did publish the 4.4% nationwide unemployment rate for September on Thursday, it still has not released data for individual states, or their metro and micropolitan figures.
The BLS has not provided any update on whether or not it will release that data.
In regard to October’s unemployment data, the BLS announced it will provide October’s and November's figures together in December.
“BLS will not publish an October 2025 Employment Situation news release. Establishment survey data from the Current Employment Statistics survey for October 2025 will be published with the November 2025 data,” the BLS says on its website.
As of Friday morning, the BLS is planning to release its October and November data on Dec. 16.
Between May and August, Massachusetts’ unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.8%. Greater Worcester’s unemployment rate was 5.0%, with Worcester proper’s rate slightly higher at 5.2%.
At 4.2% in August, Greater Framingham had the lowest unemployment rate of the Central Massachusetts areas analyzed by Worcester Business Journal.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
