Mass. unemployment rate drops to 8.8 percent
The Massachusetts unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent in August as the state's labor market added 4,000 private sector jobs, the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said today.
It was the state's seventh straight month of job growth; the Massachusetts unemployment rate was 9 percent in July.
In August, the Bay State's private sector added 4,000 jobs with the largest gains in the leisure and hospitality; professional, scientific and business services; and construction segments of the labor market, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said in a press release.
The state continues to outpace the national recovery. The nation shed jobs in each of the past three months as private sector job growth was too weak to offset layoffs of temporary US Census workers and cuts in state and local government payrolls. The national unemployment rate rose to 9.6 perecent last month from 9.5 percent in July.
Massachusetts has been helped by a local economy that depends more on technology, health care, and education, and less on construction, housing, and consumer goods, which were hardest hit in the recent recession.
To read the Globe story about Massachusetts unemployment numbers for July, please click here.
- By Email Business Updates newsletter
