Massachusetts employers added 13,500 jobs last month and the statewide unemployment rate dropped by two-tenths of a percentage point to 3.5 percent for July, the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said Friday.
The private sectors that saw the largest job gains in July were professional and business services (5,550 jobs), education and health services (5,200 jobs), and “other services” (1,400 jobs). But government took the cake with the addition of 12,800 jobs last month, officials said.
Citing federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the state said June’s jobs gain was revised upward from 3,400 positions to 5,800. The leisure and hospitality sector lost 12,300 jobs last month; the trade, transportation, and utilities sector shed 1,200 jobs; and the construction industry lost 600 jobs, the state agency that tracks employment said Friday, August 19.
State officials said there are now 3,680,100 people employed in Massachusetts, with 134,500 jobs gained between July 2021 and July 2022. There were also 130,900 people unemployed last month, for a total labor force of 3,765,600, or 65.8 percent of the working age population. That’s down, the state said, by an estimated 7,500 people from 3,773,100 in June.
The labor force is the number of employed residents and residents who are not working but have actively sought work in the last four weeks. The Bay State’s unemployment rate matches the national rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said.
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