STEVE LeBLANC and MARK PRATT,
AP
August 22, 2020
BOSTON (AP) – The Massachusetts unemployment rate that increased during the coronavirus pandemic fell to 16.1% in July, but remains the highest in the nation, according to figures released Friday by state officials and federal labor.
The July rate is 1.6 percentage points down from the adjusted June rate of 17.7%, according to the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
The national unemployment rate in July was 10.2%. The unemployment rate of Massachusetts in July 2019 was 2.9%.
Massachusetts added more than 72,000 jobs last month after adding nearly 95,000 in June as the state continues to recover from the economic shutdown triggered by the pandemic, according to the forecast of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ preliminary task.
About half of those job gains went to the entertainment and hairdressing section, which was hit particularly hard during the pandemic. Trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; and government sectors also had significant job gains.
