Mass. unemployment rate drops to 8.8 percent

The Massachusetts unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent in August as the state's labor market added 4,000 private sector jobs, the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said today.

It was the state's seventh straight month of job growth; the Massachusetts unemployment rate was 9 percent in July.

In August, the Bay State's private sector added 4,000 jobs with the largest gains in the leisure and hospitality; professional, scientific and business services; and construction segments of the labor market, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said in a press release.

The state continues to outpace the national recovery. The nation shed jobs in each of the past three months as private sector job growth was too weak to offset layoffs of temporary US Census workers and cuts in state and local government payrolls. The national unemployment rate rose to 9.6 perecent last month from 9.5 percent in July.

Massachusetts has been helped by a local economy that depends more on technology, health care, and education, and less on construction, housing, and consumer goods, which were hardest hit in the recent recession.

Job growth holds up in Mass.

Massachusetts employers added jobs for the sixth consecutive month in July as the state economy continued a broad recovery that is outpacing the nation as whole.

The state gained more than 13,000 jobs last month, while data revisions showed that employment growth in June, nearly 3,000 jobs, was far stronger than initially estimated, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported yesterday. The state unemployment rate held steady at 9 percent.

Employment in Massachusetts has increased despite a slowing US economy. The nation has lost jobs in each of the past two months, largely due to layoffs of temporary US Census workers. But private sector job growth has also been weak, and first-time claims for unemployment benefits have risen.

Nationally, new claims for benefits hit 500,000 last week for the first time since November, the US Labor Department reported yesterday.

“There’s a trend here in Massachusetts, and it’s positive,’’ said Michael Goodman, economic analyst and professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. “But this is going to be difficult to sustain if there is continued weakness in the national and international economies.’’

The Massachusetts economy has been expanding at a solid clip since it emerged from the recession about a year ago. In the past six months, the state has added 60,000 jobs, nearly double the number reached in all of 2006, the best year for employment growth in the recovery that followed the 2001 recession.

Employment here has risen at an annual rate of about 4 percent since January, compared to about 1 percent nationally, according to state and federal statistics. The US unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in July.

The strong job growth is “not an accident,’’ Governor Deval Patrick said in an interview.

“The economy is responding to our strategy, which is education, innovation, and infrastructure,’’ Patrick said. “We are on the mend and on the move.’’

Still, with a high unemployment rate, Patrick said, the recovery has a long way to go. Even with recent growth, the state has 106,000 fewer jobs than when the recession began in the spring of 2008.

“If you’re out of work, good statistics are cold comfort,’’ Patrick said.

Patrick’s opponents in the November election, Republican Charles D. Baker and state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who is running as an independent, said latest employment statistics are nothing to celebrate.

“The fact of the matter is that unemployment has doubled since the governor took office, and there are still nearly 11,000 more Massachusetts residents who are unemployed now than there were a year ago,’’ Cahill said in a statement. “If the governor thinks this is a success, then we have a long way to go for getting the 312,300 residents who are still unemployed back to work.’’

Baker said Patrick’s tax and regulatory polices are preventing Massachusetts businesses from hiring at a pace that would lower the unemployment rate. “While any job growth is good news right now, 312,000 people remain out of work,’’ Baker said. “We have to do better.’’

The state is recovering more quickly than other parts of the country because its industries depend more on technology and business spending, and less on housing and consumers, according to local economists.

In the two previous recessions, which were led by technology and business spending busts, the state’s mix of industries meant longer and deeper downturns. This time, a national housing collapse and pullback in consumer spending led the recession.

Last month’s employment gains were broad-based in Massachusetts, with only one major sector, government, experiencing losses. Most of those losses, which totaled 6,000 jobs, were concentrated in the federal government, largely due to cuts in census positions, state labor officials said.

Private companies, meanwhile, added more than 19,000 positions in July, the largest private sector job gains in 20 years. The gains were led by 6,500 new jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, which includes restaurants and hotels.

The state’s economic drivers also experienced strong growth. The professional and business services sector, which includes a variety of technical, scientific, and technology firms, added 2,700 jobs.

Manufacturing added 2,800 jobs, the fifth month of employment growth in the past six. Financial services gained 800 jobs. Education and health services added 600. Even the construction industry continued its rebound, adding jobs for the fourth consecutive month. The sector, which lost about 35,000 jobs in the recession, or one in four, gained 500 jobs in July, and has added 6,500 since March.

Robert Gavin can be reached at rgavin@globe.com.

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From the Boston Globe - Sept 15, 2010 -