Mass. is the only state to see unemployment increase in September
An employee at Dexter-Russell in Southbridge
Massachusetts was the only state in September to see an increase in unemployment, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Friday release. The rate grew from 5.0% to 5.2% from August to September, putting Massachusetts 0.4 percentage points above the national average of 4.8%.
This marks the second consecutive month Massachusetts’ unemployment rate has increased since its initial jump of 13.7 percentage points at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. It plateaued at 4.9% in June and July before rising in August.
The rate is still considerably lower than the 8.9% of Sept. 2020, but higher than the pre-pandemic 3.0% of Sept. 2019.
The Commonwealth was one of 28 states to have a statistically significant change in its unemployment rate last month, as 22 states remained basically stable through the month.
Despite rising unemployment, the state added 11,900 jobs in September, which is a 0.3% growth from the jobs added in August. Since Sept. 2020, 175,200 total jobs have been added. Massachusetts has added jobs at the fourth highest rate over the last year.
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