Belmont Unemployment Rate Remains Steady in April

After hitting a 12-month high in October, the number of unemployed Belmont residents has decreased in the past seven months to where the rate is approximately half the national level.

According to the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, more than 100 residents found employment since October 2012 as the number of the unemployed in Belmont fell to 512 residents in April, a 3.8 percent non-seasonally adjusted rate. 

The town's unemployment rate dipped from 4.6 percent last October when 629 residents were without work.

The 3.8 percent rate is below the 6.8 percent jobless rate for the state in April and the US's 7.8 percent.

Over the same time period, the state's unemployment rate has spiked from 6.1 to 6.8 percent.

The current unemployment rate is nearly 50 percent lower then the high water mark for unemployment in Belmont for the past 10 years when, in June 2009, 851 residents found themselves looking for work, or 6.6 percent of the town's work force.

The lowest unemployment rate in the past decade in Belmont was in April 2007 when only 317 residents, or 2.5 percent, could not find work.