BOSTON – The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development today reported that the June 2012 seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates were down in the Barnstable, Fall River, Nantucket and Tisbury areas; unchanged in the Pittsfield area; and up in the other seventeen areas over the month. Over the year, the rates are down in all twenty two labor areas.
Statewide, the June seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 6.3 percent, up 0.5 of a percentage point from 5.8 percent recorded in May. Over the year, the statewide unadjusted rate was down 1.3 percentage points from the June 2011 unadjusted rate of 7.6 percent.
In June 2012, over the month job gains occurred in eight of the twelve areas that estimates are published due to seasonal increases. The largest gains occurred in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Barnstable, Worcester, and Springfield areas. The Barnstable area had the largest over the month rate of job growth due to seasonal gains. The Pittsfield and Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury also recorded noteworthy growth.
Over the year, eleven of the twelve areas for which estimates are published added jobs with the largest percentage gains in the Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, Peabody, and Boston-Cambridge-Quincy areas.
The seasonally adjusted statewide June unemployment rate, released on July 19th, remained unchanged over the month at 6.0 percent, and down 1.4 percentage points from the 7.4 percent rate recorded in June 2011. The statewide seasonally adjusted jobs estimate showed a 2,600 job loss over the month.
The labor force, unemployment rates and jobs estimates, for Massachusetts and for every other state, are based on 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.
