Greater Haverhill Among Highest Job Growth Areas in State

Greater Haverhill was one of the areas reporting the highest statewide job growth during June.

The Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury area added 1,600 jobs between May and June, or more than 2,100 jobs from a year ago, according to a report issued Tuesday by the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. By comparison, the Lawrence-Methuen -Salem, N.H. area grew 200 jobs between May and June but lost 400 during the last year.

“During the first six months of 2017, Massachusetts has experienced the largest increase in the labor force on record, and the 66.7 labor force participation rate is now 3.9 points higher than the U.S. rate,” Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta said. “These marked labor force gains should help ease labor market pressures and are signs of a growing economy in the Commonwealth.”

Statewide, job growth took place in education and health services; trade, transportation, and utilities; leisure and hospitality; other services; manufacturing; information; and financial activities. The state’s total unemployment rate increased to 4.3 percent in June from the May rate of 4.2 percent.

Local unemployment rates though increased in 18 areas and decreased in six areas in the state during the month of June, the report showed as a result of more people entering the workforce. Compared to June, 2016, the rates were up in 24 areas.

Thirteen of the 15 areas for which job estimates are published recorded seasonal job gains in June. The largest gains occurred in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Barnstable, Framingham, Pittsfield, and Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury areas.

In order to compare the statewide rate to local unemployment rates, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the statewide unadjusted unemployment rate for June was 4.4 percent. Last week, the state reported the statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.3 percent in the month of June.