June 30, 2020
Central Mass. unemployment hits 14.7% for May
Photo | Grant Welker
Welly's Restaurant on Main Street in Marlborough.
Unemployment in Central Massachusetts remained roughly flat at 14.7% in May, giving the region a slightly better number than the Massachusetts-wide rate.
Across Central Massachusetts, nearly 95,000 residents were out of work in May, according to a Worcester Business Journal analysis of Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development data. That's nearly 5,000 more people than were counted a month prior.
The city of Worcester worsened slightly in May to hit 17.6%, up from 16.6% a month prior. That change includes an additional 1,604 city residents out of work and a nearly fivefold increase from a year ago, according to state data.
The national recession that started in February and worsened by the coronavirus pandemic has led to unemployment rates that in many cases have exceeded those seen even during the Great Recession — just a few months after those rates were near record lows.
Worcester's rate in March, for example, was 3.2%, and the Massachusetts rate was 3.0%.
The worst unemployment rate in Central Massachusetts is in Southbridge at 20.7%, followed by Fitchburg at 19.8%. Among the area's largest communities, Framingham's rate in May was 14.0%, Leominster was 17.5%, Marlborough's was 14.9%, and Shrewsbury's was 12.4%.
Lawrence is the worst in Massachusetts at 29%. The Massachusetts-wide rate of 16.3% is tied for fourth-worst unemployment rate nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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