September 2, 2020
Despite improvements, unemployment rates in Greater Worcester & Fitchburg among nation's worst
Photo | Grant Welker
Main Street in downtown Fitchburg
By Grant Welker
Unemployment rates in July improved in Greater Worcester and Northern Worcester County, but each remained among the nation's worst, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Wednesday.
Rates for the Worcester area and the Leominster-to-Gardner area each improved by nearly a whole percentage point. But that relatively good news is balanced by the region's continued ranking among the worst nationally during the coronavirus pandemic and a related sudden shock to the economy.
The Worcester area's unemployment rate stood in July at 14.9%, an improvement from 15.8% in June. But the region's national ranking was actually slightly worse: 368th out of 389, placing it in the worst 5% of all regions. The area comprising Leominster, Fitchburg and Gardner improved from 18.7% to 17.8% in its unemployment rate, but is now the overall sixth worst, compared to seventh a month prior.
The Worcester area has lost 25,200 non-farm workers from February to July, according to federal data, a drop of nearly 9%. The pandemic has helped wipe out more than two decades of job growth in the area, although some has bounced back from a low point in April. From April to July, the region added back 19,500 jobs.
Leisure and hospitality has taken the biggest hit in Worcester, losing 7,100 jobs, or 28% of the workforce, since February, even after adding back more than half of what it quickly lost in April.
The new data highlights continued struggles for many areas suffering from closed businesses, especially in the Northeast, where government-mandated limits on business generally remain strict. Massachusetts, which had the nation's worst unemployment rate of 16.1% in July, includes six of the 22 worst metro areas. In addition to the two Central Massachusetts regions, that includes New Bedford (18.8%, fifth worst), Pittsfield (17.0%, eighth worst), Springfield (16.4%, 13th worst), Boston (15.5%, 17th worst), and Barnstable (15.4%, 18th worst).
The bottom of the list otherwise includes regions along the Southwest border with Mexico in California and Arizona, and tourist-dependent areas in Hawaii, Las Vegas and Orlando, among others. Nationally, the unemployment rate in July was 10.3%.
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