Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

MA Unemployment Down, Job Gains Continue

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August employment numbers were released today and Massachusetts continues to add jobs for every month in 2010.  Unemployment rate has now gone down into the 8’s with an 8.8 rate.

In addition to the August job growth, July numbers were revised upward to account for additional job growth not previously reported.  

To get a sense of the accomplishment for the 64,300 job gains in 2010, Massachusetts ranks 3rd in the country in the rate of job growth.

Massachusetts is currently third in rate of job growth in the nation year-to-date based on the July preliminary estimates for all states.

This was Charlie Baker’s response last month, I wonder what it will be this month.

*Update*

Lynne makes another good point at her blog, Left in Lowell:

News today is that Massachusetts unemployment dropped again – to 8.8%, with another 4,000 new private sector jobs.

Government positions were down in August due to temporary census positions.  Job gains in the private sector fueled job growth in August.  Another good sign for the state’s economy.

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  1. My post on the subject, which quotes this post. Now if you edit your post to quote my post, there will be an infinity loop of post quoting. đŸ˜‰

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    p>Don’t cross the streams!!!

    • I wonder if Baker is going to ignore this, I’m hoping for another press release tell us why this is bad for the state.

      • I think the universe just IMPLODED!

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        p>But, due to the laws of physics not needing God to create another universe, it recreated itself spontaneously. đŸ˜€

        • It’s just David Whelan attacking the numbers, not Baker’s people. He’s been on this crusade to claim that Patrick is fudging the employment numbers, with nothing to back up his claims and displaying complete ignorance about how these numbers are put together. He’s just one of those people who keeps saying the same thing, no matter how many times people point out that what he’s saying makes no sense.

  2. MA’s economy has as a couple of legs health care and education, neither of which were as susceptible to job loss as the rest of the nation, so let’s not get carried away with job growth.  There is still a ton of work to do (and has anyone noticed that 35 miles to the north New Hampshire has now slipped below 6%?). Know we’re in an election and all that and that everyone is trying to spin data six ways to Sunday, but 8.8% is still pretty darned high.  We’re not remotely close to out of the woods.

        • The Retail sector, which comprises almost one in every six jobs in New Hampshire, added 400 jobs in August. It now has 95,200 workers, which is up 2,100 jobs over the 12-month period.

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          p>Care to speculate why that increase occurred?

    • It’s unemployment level may be less, but it is trending in the wrong direction. Employment decreased 0.8% over the past month. This is the largest percentage decline in the nation. Massachusetts was outpaced in job growth over the past month only by Michigan and the District of Columbia.

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      p>To be sure, New Hampshire posted among the largest percentage gains over the year-  yet Massachusetts again was third highest numerically not but over the past month, but also throughout the year following only Texas and Indiana. Patrick can’t fudge these numbers, BTW:

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      p>These are US Department of Labor numbers.

      • et al (and you really have to take a step back and realize that they’re not polling everyone in the country every month to get these data, and that there is a certain amount of WAG involved in any newly released data – as an economist friend told me, the only real numbers that matter are the revisions as they’re closer to the truth), but good luck arguing that a state w/ a 5.7% rate is worse off than a state w/ an 8.8% rate.  I’d like to hear how that one goes.

        • New Hampshire also boasts the nation’s lowest percentage of people in poverty. By no means am I claiming New Hampshire’s in any way worse off. I’m saying MA job growth will continue

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          p>Massachusetts is projected to produce half of the post-secondary jobs that shall be created in New England, it has the highest proportion of its residents with a college degree throughout the nation, and future job growth is almost certain to follow the skilled labor pool. That pool is here, within our state, and that pool is growing.

          • just curious as to why NH would be showing such dramatically lower numbers than say RI in this current turnaround.  As already mentioned, many folks do commute from NH to work in MA.  Assuming that they are unemployed and not stuck on Rtes 3/93, presume they would count against NH, not MA.

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            p>Larger issue though is that yes, MA does have comparative advantages over the rest of the country, but don’t really think that the Patrick Administration (nor the Romney/Swift/Celluci/Weld administrations for that matter) can claim credit for having two industries (academia and health care) that are less affected by the economy and the high tech industry situated in the Commonwealth.  They’ve been here for a long time.  And we haven’t faced the Real Estate crunch that the Fl/AZ/CA/NV/MI contingent have because this state is about built out.  Where could a Lennar or Toll Bros. throw up massive subdivisions around here?  Not alot of undeveloped usable land, and building to the East is kind of out of the question since you’d be at the bottom of the ocean.

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            p>Concern is that the national economy has to improve so that the High Tech industry can rebound, which is out of control of any administration, and that the unintended consequences contained in the Health Care Reform Bill don’t crunch our teaching hospitals and medical device companies along the way.  And that is out of the hands of the governor, whoever that may be next year.

    • health care and (higher) education don’t lend themselves to massive growth in a short period of time, due to the overhead involved.  Just as they don’t tend to lay off large numbers of people in a short amount of time, they don’t tend to hire large numbers of people in a short amount of time either.

    • It’s the monthly jobs report, you know it gets released every month, all states do it and it’s done nationally each month.  You might have heard about it.

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      p>What is pathetic is Baker telling voters that being the 3rd best rate in job growth is a “depressed growth”, it’s sounds desperate.

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      p>Everyone understands that we are coming out of a recession and we’ve lost jobs.  The question here is who will better lead us out.  So far Patrick has shown that he has brought us out of the recession earlier than the country and positioned well to gain jobs faster.  This year we’ve gained jobs each and every month at a pace better than 47 other states.  Baker says that’s horrible and the recession didn’t happen, Patrick single handedly caused the recession.  Voters aren’t stupid.

      • http://www.boston.com/business…

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        p>

        The state’s unemployment rate has slipped below 9 percent for the first time in a year, as Massachusetts employers added jobs for the seventh consecutive month and the economic recovery advanced at a solid, if slowing, pace.

        The drop in unemployment to 8.8 percent, detailed in data released by the state yesterday, was partly due to discouraged workers who gave up searching for a job and dropped out of the labor force, officials said. Only those who actively seek work are counted as unemployed.

        Still, the news was further evidence that Massachusetts is rebounding faster than the rest of the nation, analysts said.

        The jobless rate last month was down from July’s 9 percent, and was the lowest rate since August 2009, the state executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported yesterday.

        “It’s nice to see the rate drop, but it’s also a concern that the labor force has been shrinking in recent months,” said Elliot Winer, chief economist at Northeast Economic Analysis Group, a Sudbury consulting firm. “If there was truly optimism out there, you would be expecting more people to be coming into the labor force and looking for jobs.”

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        p>A little more nuanced than a campaign headline.  Not picking a particular dog in this fight, although I lean towards Baker, but we’ve got a long ways to go to get back to the 4.5-5.0% halcyon days.  Let’s let a little of the “reality based” view in here and look beyond campaign spin.

        • I’m with the guy who is leading us out faster than 47 other states and has economists agree that the state has come out of the recession faster.  3rd best rate in job growth is pretty damn good, might be something to consider when voting for a candidate.  The other guy, well, everything is bad and when the positive news keeps on coming he’s reduced to using his Republican think tank for press releases.

      • 60,000 new jobs is great and of course we should tout it, but it still may be difficult to win over the people who didn’t get one of those 60,000 jobs.

        • unfortunately for Baker he’s reduced to lying about Patrick’s statements and right wing think tanks that he used to work for.  Patrick has always prefaced the positive growth with a long battle, he showing us what he’s doing to fight for us to get jobs.  2010 shown growth in every month, 3rd best state, he has shown us progress and in comparison to all the other states, it’s been impressive.  That’s what we should be looking at, this Baker phony baloney is what should make everyone’s stomach turn.  Patrick victory lap junk he’s peddling, talking down the growth and hard work of everyone in the state.  It’s pathetic.  Vote for the guy fighting for jobs and the track record to show for it, not the guy who disagrees with everything and doesn’t detail his plan.

      • Do you have a job that actually depends on the economy? The unemployment rate among construction is 17%, while among government workers it’s 6%. I am not one of these people who will just keep collecting a check until doomsday arrives.

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        p>Nobody is going to buy my product because of a jobs report. They’re going to buy it on the basis of their sense of whether they can afford it, and that includes how they feel about keeping their jobs. And their personal experience is much more important than some economics report they hear for a second on the news.

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        p>Maybe things are turning around, I don’t think Deval is a terrible governor. If he worries a little more about actually making the jobs happen and less about publicity he will get all the votes he needs.  

    • We’re trying to have a real-world discussion here based on numbers and reality, not a Fox and Friends “well I just feel”- and “some people say”-based discussion.

  5. Of course it could be better, much better, but none the less any new jobs coming now will only help people. I’m not handing out credit for anything but I still am happy the news is good and hope it continues.

      • This is the same logic that will remove MCAS and have us be happy the MA kids are smarter than Alabama kids.

        • I don’t see the connection.

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          p>Just pointing out reality, not never-never-land.  The reality is that we are coming out of a recession, a global one and the worst since the great depression.  We have come out stronger and in the months after show that we’re one of the leaders in job growth.

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          p>The other guy, “eh, could be better” – awesome, that’s how he’s going to lead the state?  Do yourself a favor if you want results vote for Patrick.

    • Liberals have to stop confusing what they “want” to happen in November with what is “going” to happen. You lose! “

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      p>…and merely saying something over and over again doesn’t necessarily make it any more likely to happen.

        • Maybe that being lectured on reality by a Tea Partier is pretty…rich. At a national level, at least, what the Tea Party has done thus far is to put a number of previously unattainable Congressional seats into play for the Dems (Alaska and Delaware in just the last week). In MA-03, I’m feeling a lot better about McGovern beating Marty Lamb than I would’ve felt about Brian Herr.

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          p>The zeal that you and yours share does not seem to be matched with any strategy or tactics, so I’m wondering who lives in a reality-based world here when it comes to what we “want” to happen in November vs. what is “going” to happen…

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