Continued seasonal job losses, combined with a shrinking local labor force, brought Haverhill’s unemployment rate for November slightly lower than the previous month.
The latest numbers, released Tuesday by the labor department, show Haverhill had 71 fewer jobs, 74 people stopped receiving unemployment benefits and the pool of those working or seeking work shrank by 145 during November. The combination brought the city’s unemployment rate down to 2.7 percent. Other communities within WHAV’s listening area, such as Methuen, saw unemployment fall below three percent. Methuen’s labor pool gained by 14 and 81 new jobs were created while 67 fewer people were reported unemployed last month. That brought its unemployment rate to 2.9 percent, down by three tenths of a percent compared with October. In the greater Merrimack Valley, the urban communities of Lawrence and Lowell remained above three percent unemployment.
“From November, 2015, to November, 2016, 14 of the 15 (reporting) areas added jobs, with the largest percentage gains in the Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury, Taunton-Middleborough-Norton, Worcester, and Barnstable areas,” a statement from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reads.
The statewide average unemployment rate in November was 2.6 percent, down by one tenths of a percent.