Greater Haverhill Area Sees Job Gains in October

The state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development today reported the preliminary statewide unadjusted unemployment rate estimate for October was 5.1 percent, down 1.1 percent from September.  Over the year, the statewide unadjusted rate was down 1.8 percent from the October 2013 rate of 6.9 percent.

During October, the reporting areas of Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury and Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford were among 10 of the 12 areas for which job estimates are published to record job gains.

The report does not indicate whether new jobs, on average, pay as much as those lost during the most recent recession.

The largest job gain was in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area followed by Worcester, Springfield, Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, Haverhill-NorthAndover-Amesbury, Peabody, New Bedford, Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner and Framingham areas. The Pittsfield area had no change in its jobs level over the month while the Barnstable area recorded a seasonal loss.

Since October 2013, all 12 areas added jobs with the largest percentage gains in the Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, Worcester, Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, Springfield and Pittsfield areas.

The seasonally adjusted statewide October unemployment rate, released on Nov. 20, remained unchanged over the month at six percent and down 1.2 percent over the year.  The rate was .2 of a percentage point above the 5.8 percent national unemployment rate. The statewide seasonally adjusted jobs estimate showed a 1,200 job gain in October and an over the year gain of 52,600 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.