WESTFIELD — Preliminary estimates show Massachusetts gained more than 8,000 jobs in March while the state’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.3 percent from 6.5 percent the previous month, according to the state office of Labor and Workforce Development Thursday.
The U.S. Labor Department had previously reported the national unemployment rate stood at 6.7 percent in March.
In addition to the estimated increase of 8,100 jobs in Massachusetts last month, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised its February estimates to show a net gain of 5,500 jobs in February, up from the previous estimate of 3,800 jobs.
State officials are pointing to a net gain of 50,400 jobs in the past 12 months.
After remaining below the national unemployment rate for more than six years, the jobless rate in Massachusetts crept up to and surpassed the national rate in November, January and February. State officials said the increase might have been a reflection of more people feeling confident enough about the economy to re-enter the workforce.
Since November, the rate has fallen back from 7.1 percent to the 6.3 percent reported in March.
The unemployment rate and the overall jobs figures are calculated using two different surveys.
MassBenchmarks, a journal of the state’s economy published by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, said in a February report that job growth in the state in 2013 appeared to have been stronger than the nation as a whole.
Skeptics in western Mass. view these numbers as somewhat skewed, believing many of the hires are being added by companies in technology fields located in greater Boston.
Jennifer Arenas, regional vice president of Robert Half, a New England-based, multi-national staffing agency with offices all over the U.S. and the globe, said there are several industries which are making comebacks in western Mass.
“In western Massachusetts, there has been a huge uptick in a variety of industries, from banking and consumer goods, to healthcare and manufacturing, and a lot of these opportunities are in professional positions,” she said. “Accounting and finance (positions), information technology, administrative support, and customer service.”
While the data and information available to her doesn’t drill all the way down to a Hampden County-level, Arenas states that companies are hiring and that the amount of candidates has been decreasing.
“As unemployment numbers go down, it’s now getting competitive within companies and the availability of qualified candidates has been low,” she said. “When you look at trends in Massachusetts, theres been steady unemployment and numbers of people looking to retire.”
Arenas added that, because companies have been running with lean staffing since the start of the economy’s downturn, they are now looking to hire multiple people at once, and that there has been movement among the ranks of the employed.
“Retention is going to be a huge focus in 2014,” she said. “When companies look to hire, they’re postings stay up for 12-18 weeks on average. It’s getting harder for companies to hire fast.”
She also believes that the statewide market is going to pick up, and that companies looking to upgrade their technology, software, and streamlining processes will make the biggest splashes in hiring.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a crystal ball, but we’re optimistic it will continue,” Arenas said. “The state as a whole has seen an ultimate high in it’s job count, and we’ve seen increases in just job postings alone, and the state should continue to see that.”
