State's unemployment rate drops again
Massachusetts' unemployment rate dipped for the eighth straight month in May, reaching its lowest point — 4.6 percent — since December 2007.
The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) reported Thursday it was also the ninth consecutive month of job gains in the state. The new preliminary job estimates for May from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show a gain of 7,400 positions.
May’s unemployment rate declined by 0.1 percentage points from April’s rate of 4.7 percent. The May rate also represents a drop of 1.2 percentage points from May 2014’s jobless rate of 5.8 percent.
The state's unemployment rate is now almost a percentage point lower than the national rate of 5.5 percent.
“We have had solid job growth in the last three months, with approximately 30,000 jobs added in the state,” Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Ronald Walker II said in a statement. “As more jobs are created, more people are coming back into the labor market.”
Of the 7,400 jobs added in May, 7,100 were in the private sector. Construction added 3,500 jobs, and retail trade and wholesale trade each added 1,500. The manufacturing sector gained 600 positions and financial activities gained 700, while transportation and warehousing lost 500 jobs, the EOLWD said.
In another positive development, the EOLWD reported that the state’s labor participation rate – the total number of residents 16 or older who worked or were unemployed and actively sought work in the last four weeks – ticked up 0.1 percentage point to 66.4.
The BLS also upwardly revised its April jobs figure, reporting the state gained 11,200 jobs, instead of the 10,100 the agency reported last month.
The unemployment rate in Massachusetts peaked in September 2009 at 8.8 percent.
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