Pittsfield, North Adams Jobless Rates Drop Slightly

Staff Reports 09:47AM / Tuesday March 08, 2011

BOSTON — The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reports that the January seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates were up in all 22 labor-market areas, including Pittsfield, reflecting seasonal trends.

Statewide, the January seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 9.0 percent, an increase of 1.0 percentage point from the revised December rate of 8.0 percent. Despite adding jobs over January 2010, Pittsfield's unadjusted jobless rate is 9.3 percent and North Adams is 10.5. Both those rates are down fractionally over last year.

Over-the-year, unemployment rates were lower in 20 of the 22 areas. The Amherst and Tisbury rates were up. Over-the-year, the state unadjusted unemployment rate was down 0.6 of a percentage point from the 9.6 percent rate in January 2010.

In January seasonal influences resulted in over-the-month jobs losses in all 12 areas for which job estimates are published. However, over-the-year job gains were realized in nine of the areas while three had a loss. Job gains occurred in the New Bedford, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Worcester; Barnstable, Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, Haverhill-North-Andover-Amesbury, Pittsfield, Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner and Springfield areas. The Peabody, Framingham, and Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford areas lost jobs.

The statewide seasonally adjusted jobs estimate released on March 3rd showed a 5,600 job gain. The commonwealth has added 33,800 jobs since December 2009. The seasonally adjusted statewide January unemployment rate of 8.3 percent was unchanged over-the-month and down 0.5 of a percentage point from the 8.8 percent rate in January 2010. The Massachusetts statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remains well below the national rate of 9.0 percent.

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.

NOTES: The local area unemployment rates and labor force data have been revised for 2010; the revised estimates for 2006 through 2009 will be published on March 29, 2011. The labor area jobs data have been revised for 2009 and 2010.

The February 2011 unemployment rate, labor force data and jobs estimates for Massachusetts will be released on March 17, 2011; local unemployment statistics will be released on March 29, 2011. Detailed labor market information is available at www.mass.gov/lmi. See the revised February, 2011 Media Advisory annual schedule for complete listing of release dates also at www.mass.gov/lmi.

Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development
Division of Unemployment Assistance

Labor Force, Employment and Unemployment

Massachusetts and Labor Areas

(Data not seasonally adjusted)

Excel of this data

	Jan 2011	Dec 2010	Jan 2010	Jan 2011	Dec 2010	Jan 2010	Jan 2011	Dec 2010	Jan 2010	Jan 2011	Dec 2010	Jan 2010
Location	Labor Force			Employment			Unemployment			Rate
Mass.	3,482,900	3,488,300	3,464,900	3,171,000	3,209,100	3,130,800	311,900	279,200	334,000	9.0 %	8.0 %	9.6 %
Metropolitian Divisions
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy	1,541,284	1,542,443	1,532,459	1,426,878	1,437,727	1,408,122	114,406	104,716	124,337	7.4 %	6.8 %	8.1 %
Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton	129,670	129,316	128,531	116,387	117,477	114,555	13,283	11,839	13,976	10.2 %	9.2 %	10.9 %
Framingham, NECTA	148,411	148,310	148,682	138,378	139,131	137,500	10,033	9,179	11,182	6.8 %	6.2 %	7.5 %
Haverhill-N Andover-Amesbury, MA-NH	124,596	124,353	123,924	114,509	115,367	112,520	10,087	8,986	11,404	8.1 %	7.2 %	9.2 %
Lawrence-Methuen-Salem, MA-NH	75,130	74,578	73,052	65,344	65,543	63,095	9,786	9,035	9,957	13.0 %	12.1 %	13.6 %
Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, MA-NH	155,408	155,525	155,512	141,515	142,899	140,002	13,893	12,626	15,510	8.9 %	8.1 %	10.0 %
Taunton-Norton-Raynham, MA	64,649	64,050	64,269	58,447	58,627	57,609	6,202	5,423	6,660	9.6 %	8.5 %	10.4 %
Metropolitian Statisical Areas
Barnstable, MA	129,408	130,873	128,027	114,465	118,555	112,510	14,943	12,318	15,517	11.5 %	9.4 %	12.1 %
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH	2,547,518	2,546,972	2,535,514	2,347,852	2,365,154	2,317,075	199,666	181,818	218,439	7.8 %	7.1 %	8.6 %
Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner,	74,113	73,872	73,944	65,509	66,033	64,976	8,604	7,839	8,968	11.6 %	10.6 %	12.1 %
New Bedford	88,011	87,442	86,727	75,948	77,374	74,177	12,063	10,068	12,550	13.7 %	11.5 %	14.5 %
Pittsfield	39,570	39,471	39,140	35,904	36,249	35,439	3,666	3,222	3,701	9.3 %	8.2 %	9.5 %
Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA	152,181	151,191	151,844	132,874	134,935	130,729	19,307	16,256	21,115	12.7 %	10.8 %	13.9 %
Springfield, MA-CT	347,539	349,900	346,627	311,642	318,289	309,387	35,897	31,611	37,240	10.3 %	9.0 %	10.7 %
Worcester, MA-CT	297,730	297,215	296,462	269,854	271,904	266,646	27,876	25,311	29,816	9.4 %	8.5 %	10.1 %
Micropolitian Statisical Areas
Amherst Center, MA	23,037	25,815	22,991	21,616	24,454	21,605	1,421	1,361	1,386	6.2 %	5.3 %	6.0 %
Athol	10,624	10,505	10,624	9,422	9,419	9,303	1,202	1,086	1,321	11.3 %	10.3 %	12.4 %
Greenfield	22,122	22,199	22,096	20,150	20,426	19,941	1,972	1,773	2,155	8.9 %	8.0 %	9.8 %
North Adams, MA-VT	17,580	17,645	17,498	15,736	16,023	15,584	1,844	1,622	1,914	10.5 %	9.2 %	10.9 %
Other Labor Market Areass
Great Barrington, MA LMA	16,762	16,822	16,651	15,461	15,712	15,272	1,301	1,110	1,379	7.8 %	6.6 %	8.3 %
Nantucket County/town LMA	5,984	6,737	5,888	5,076	6,078	4,962	908	659	926	15.2 %	9.8 %	15.7 %
Tisbury, LMA	9,535	10,030	9,520	8,280	9,012	8,306	1,255	1,018	1,214	13.2 %	10.1 %	12.8 %

Tags: unemployment

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