State firms cut 8,000 positions in November

Jobless rate jumps to 5.9%, highest in 5 years

Massachusetts employers slashed jobs for the third consecutive month and the state unemployment rate soared last month to its highest level in more than five years, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported yesterday.

Massachusetts lost 8,000 jobs in November, following losses of 8,000 in October and 3,100 in September, the state reported. The unemployment rate jumped to 5.9 percent from 5.5 percent in October. That's the highest since August 2003 and matches the peak unemployment rate of the last recession, which began in 2001.

"This should be shocking and surprising, but it's not," said Alan Clayton-Matthews, a professor and economic analyst at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. "The national employment report was so bad, it was hard to see how any state would be spared."

Two weeks ago, the Labor Department reported that the nation lost 533,000 jobs in November and the US unemployment rate hit 6.7 percent, the highest since 1993. December won't be much better, analysts said.

Nationally, more than 550,000 laid-off workers filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, down slightly from the previous week, but up nearly 60 percent from a year ago, Labor reported yesterday. In Massachusetts, more than 15,000 people filed first-time claims last week, up nearly 50 percent from a year ago, according to Su zanne Bump, state secretary of Labor and Workforce Development.

Yesterday's economic reports, Bump said, "quantify the headlines we have been reading about the national economy and the growing impact on Massachusetts."

Even the normally stable education and healthcare sector, which includes universities and hospitals, sliced 1,500 jobs last month.

Professional and business services, a key sector that includes law, consulting, and technical firms, shed 2,000 jobs in November. Construction firms cut 1,700 jobs, manufacturers 1,200 jobs, and financial companies, 200.

Robert Gavin can be reached at rgavin@globe.com.