State jobless rate dips again in March
Massachusetts’ unemployment rate continues to fall, reaching its lowest point in about seven years last month, according to preliminary estimates from the Baker administration.
March’s 4.8 percent unemployment rate is a decline of 0.1 percentage points from February’s rate of 4.9 percent, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) reported Thursday. And it was the lowest rate in Massachusetts since February 2008’s 4.8 percent, prior to the beginning of the recessionary impact on employment. The March rate also represents a 1.1 percent drop from March 2014 unemployment rate of 5.9 percent.
The share of working age residents employed or unemployed, also known as the labor participation rate, also rose to the highest rate since June 2010. At 66.2 the rate an increased by 0.3 of a percentage point since February, the EOLWD said. Compared with March 2014, the labor participation rate increased a full percentage point.
Since March 2014, jobs in the state grew by 60,200, with 49,400 private sector job gains.
The private sector added 10,700 jobs in March, the EOLWD reported. The biggest gains were in the education and health services sector (5,500 jobs), the leisure and hospitality sector (4,900 jobs), and manufacturing (1,400 jobs).
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