Haverhill Jobless Rate Climbs to 6.7%

More people in Haverhill were jobless in August than during July. Haverhill’s unemployment rate rose from 6.3 percent to 6.7 percent.

Methuen’s jobless rate also increased slightly from 7.5 percent to 7.7 percent, but more Andover residents were working. Andover’s jobless rate dropped from 4.9 percent in July to 4.6 percent in August, according to figures released by the Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board.

The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development today reported that the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates for August were down in 13 areas, up in five labor market areas and four areas rates remained unchanged according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the year, unemployment rates were down in all the labor market areas.

The preliminary statewide unadjusted unemployment rate estimate for August was 6 percent, down .1 of a percentage point from July. Over the year, the statewide unadjusted rate was down one percent from the August, 2013, rate of seven percent.

During August, the Worcester area recorded a gain in jobs, the remaining eleven areas for which job estimates are published reported losses. The largest losses occurred in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, and Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury areas. Since August, 2013, nine of the 12 areas added jobs with the largest percentage gains in the Worcester, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Framingham, and Springfield areas. The Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner, Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, and Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury areas lost jobs. Job losses were impacted by temporary employment disruptions in the retail trade sector.

The seasonally adjusted statewide August unemployment rate, released on Sept. 18, was 5.8 percent, up .2 of a percentage point over the month and down 1.4 percent over the year. The rate was 0.3 of a percentage point below the 6.1 percent national unemployment rate. The statewide seasonally adjusted jobs estimate showed a 5,300 job loss in August and an over the year gain of 54,300 jobs.

The labor force, unemployment rates and jobs estimates for Massachusetts, and for every other state, are based on several different statistical methodologies specified by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unadjusted unemployment rates and job estimates for the labor market areas reflect seasonal fluctuations and therefore may show different levels and trends than the statewide seasonally adjusted estimates.

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Click chart for Adobe Acrobat (PDF).