Continues to ‘Creep Upward’ at a Sluggish and Regular Tempo in 2025
The statewide unemployment price continued to creep upward at a sluggish tempo in February, climbing one-tenth of a share level to 4.3%, officers introduced Friday.
Massachusetts once more skilled barely larger joblessness than the nation as an entire, which had an unemployment price of 4.1% in February. From February 2024 to February 2025, the statewide unemployment price elevated one-half of a share level.
The labor pressure participation price, which measures how many individuals have or are actively looking for jobs, remained larger in Massachusetts, outpacing the nationwide price by 4.1 share factors final month.
Totally different measurements of the whole variety of jobs confirmed various tendencies, officers mentioned. Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics knowledge counted 2,700 extra Bay Staters employed in February than in January, however a separate payroll job estimate steered the variety of positions in Massachusetts dropped 2,400 over the identical span.
Economists with MassBenchmarks mentioned of their most up-to-date report that the Massachusetts economic system “stays a examine in contradictions.”
“On the one hand, high-line financial indicators are typically constructive: Unemployment is remarkably low, and inflation has lastly returned to ranges acceptable sufficient for the Federal Reserve to start decreasing rates of interest. That is the ‘comfortable touchdown’ that economists had been hoping for when making an attempt to tame inflation with out inducing one other recession,” they wrote. “However, public sentiment concerning the economic system stays largely unfavourable, and whereas inflation is slowing, the ramifications of dramatic worth will increase over 2021 and 2022 actually nonetheless affect most households at this time.”