Mass. unemployment rate improves to 6.8%
Photo | Grant Welker
A new storefront is being constructed on Harding Street in Worcester.
The Massachusetts unemployment rate showed improvement in March, hitting 6.8% in new data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The February unemployment rate was 7.0%, which was adjusted down from the 7.1% reported last month. The state added 14,400 jobs between February and March, a small increase of 0.4%. March was the 11th straight month that employment grew in Massachusetts, though the unemployment rate has sometimes wavered as some people have given up looking for work and dropped out of the labor force.
Massachusetts ranked 38th nationally among states for March unemployment rates. The state has been among the country's hardest hit for jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, including having the country's worst unemployment rate last June and July. The states that fared worst are those either most reliant on tourism, including Hawaii and Nevada, or those with tight business operating restrictions, including New York and Connecticut.
The federal rate for March was 6.0%.
The Worcester area's unemployment rate in February was 7.4%, a slight increase from January but the second straight month that the area's number of people employed had fallen. The Leominster, Fitchburg and Gardner area, which is measured separately, had an unemployment rate of 8.4%.
Metro-area unemployment rates for March are due to be released April 28.
Among major Massachusetts industries, leisure and hospitality employment remains down by roughly a quarter from a year ago, but the sector grew slightly at 6,000 new jobs in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Education and health services jobs, which remain down almost 8% from a year ago, grew by 3,000 jobs. Manufacturing declined slightly, while financial services jobs were flat.
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