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BOSTON (State House News Service) — The unemployment rate in Massachusetts ticked down a notch to 4.7 percent in February as the economy added 14,600 jobs last month and the number of people in the labor force climbed by 5,500, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said Monday.
Unemployment was down a tenth of the percentage point from January and the Baker administration said Massachusetts has now gained back 571,400 jobs since bottoming out in April 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Job gains were recorded across all sectors except for declines in financial activities and professional and business services, with the largest job gains reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in leisure and hospitality.
Gov. Charlie Baker in a recent speech to the business community touted the state's high labor force participation rate, which includes the working age residents who are both employed and looking for jobs. The participation rate increased in February by 0.1 percent to 65.9 percent with 3,772,400 people in the labor force.
The administration said 9,900 more residents were employed in February than in January, and 4,400 fewer residents were unemployed.
Baker rolled out a $50 million grant program last week to help the hiring process along, offering businesses up to $4,000 per employee to incentivize hiring and defray the cost of training new workers.
Written by Matt Murphy/SHNS
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