Mass. Unemployment Rate Remains At 4.2 Percent

The state Department of Employment and Workforce said almost 3,000 more people had jobs last month while the size of the labor force, which includes unemployed individuals who are seeking work, shrank by about 1,500.

The state’s unemployment rate ticked down for the fifth month in a row, hitting 5.2%, still higher than the national rate of 4.7%, the Employment Development Department said Friday.

Mississippi County’s unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in April, the second-highest rate in the state.

The statewide jobless rate was 4.7 percent in May, down from 4.8 percent in April and 5.4 percent in May 2015.

The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance, a measure of new layoffs, jumped by 15.1 percent to 30,325, with about one-third of those being temporary claims.

Professional and business services jobs declined by 700 in May, as did government jobs.

Meanwhile, employers in the state have added 16,000 positions to their payrolls this year, indicating a tightening labor market across the 11 major industry sectors. “Growth occurred across the metropolitan areas and in numerous industries”. The labor force participation rate – the share of working-age people either working or looking for a job – slipped to 71 percent, ahead of second-place Washington D.C. The state with the highest rate is Alaska at 6.7 percent, followed by IL at 6.4 percent and Louisiana at 6.3 percent.

The state saw a net loss of 2,500 jobs in May, with the government losing 2,100 jobs and 2,300 in education and health services. Over the year, Information lost 2,300 (-2.6 percent) jobs. Educational and health services posted the largest gain on a numerical basis, adding 102,000 jobs, a 4.2 percent increase.

The financial activities sector expanded by 600 jobs in May 2016 from a month ago. Labor officials said most of those filings were from workers laid off from the manufacturing sector. Over the year, Manufacturing lost 1,100 (-0.4 percent) jobs.