 The Bureau of Labor Statistics released it's state-by-state economic data for the month of July today. Massachusetts unemployment rose from 8.6% in June to 8.8% in July. While Massachusetts experiencesd a 0.2% increase, unemployment actually declined by 0.1% Nationally. While we are in a national and international economic recession, under one party Democratic rule Massachusetts continues to do one of the worst jobs at handling the recession.
These numbers are actually a lot worse than they appear at first glance. In June, the nation actually shed an additional 247,000 net jobs. However, because so many people gave up hope and stopped looking for work, they were removed from the list of people actively seeking jobs. Mothers seeking second incomes decided to just stay at home. People close to retirement simply retired. The Denominator in this equation changed enough so the unemployment rate actually improved while actual employment continued to drop. In 2009 America has destroyed or eliminated 3,586,000 net jobs.
Since January of 2007 when Deval Patrick became Governor and joined the Democratic super majorities in the state legislature unemployment has risen from 4.6% to 8.8%. 146,546 people have been added to the list of unemployed and Massachusetts has shed 122,009 net jobs. Massachusetts all time high was 10.9% in January, 1976.
Meanwhile, sales tax free New Hampshire gained 2,741 jobs over the past month resulting in a statistically insignificant drop in their unemployment rate. |
