Mass. unemployment hits 9.1 percent

The Massachusetts unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent in August, matching the peak unemployment during the recession in the early 1990s, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported this morning.

The Massachusetts unemployment rate in July was 8.8 percent, and earlier this month, the US Labor Department reported that nationwide, the unemployment rate was 9.7 percent, nearly the highest in a generation, up from 9.4 percent the previous month.

For the month of August, 400 jobs were lost in Massachusetts, compared with a revised job loss number of 800 for July, the state agency said; it was initially reported that 2,800 jobs were lost in July.

In August, the professional, scientific, and business services and education and health services of the Massachusetts economy gained the most jobs, while construction and financial activities recorded the largest monthly declines, the state agency said in this morning's report.

"At 3,185,900, jobs are down 105,700 or 3.2 percent, from one year ago," the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development in looking at the total Massachusetts labor force.

Such sectors of the local economy as education and health services and leisure and hospitality continued to record higher job numbers than one year ago, the office said.

To read a Globe story about the Massachusetts unemployment rate for July, please click here. To read an AP story about the national unemployment rate, please click here. (Globe Staff)