Politics & Government
North Andover Unemployment Up in June
What's going on with the local job market?
North Andover seems to have joined the statewide trend of adding jobs in June but also seeing its unemployment rate rise slightly.
The Office of Labor and Workforce Development reports that
Massachusetts added 2,800 jobs in June, yet the total seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 6.6 percent to 7 percent. Even with the workforce increase, the number of unemployed made the unemployment rate jump up.
Locally, the rate -- not yet seasonally adjusted -- was 6.6 percent in June, up from 5.9 percent in May and 6.4 percent in June 2012.
To see the picture more clearly, let's look at the numbers.
- Labor force was 14,557 in June of this year, up from 14,347 in May. Labor force was 14,509 in June 2012. So the number of people in the labor force in North Andover was higher in June than in May (and almost equal to the number in the labor force in June of last year).
- Employment was 13,603 in June in North Andover, up from 13,497 in May and not far from the 13,584 employment in North Andover in June 2012.
- But the number of unemployed people in North Andover was 954 in June, up dramatically from 850 in May and 925 in June 2012.
This June, the rise in the number of unemployed people and expansion of the labor force in North Andover offset any job growth and increase in the number of employed.
The growth in the labor force includes graduates and others who have entered the job market, including those who were retired or longterm unemployed and are now trying to find work again.
The state does not provide a town-by-town list of which industries saw job gains and which did not. But statewide a few things stand out:
- Government jobs increased statewide by 2,100 from May to June and 2,900 jobs since June 2012. With budgets tightening locally, North Andover has not been in a hurry to add many local government jobs in the past year, so that sector increase is not reflected locally.
- Financial services -- a big industry in the Andovers -- added just 300 jobs from May to June and actually lost 700 jobs since June of 2012.
- The combined professional, scientific and business services sector -- another big sector of employment for North Andover -- lost 1,900 jobs from May to June, which chipped away at the 12,200 jobs added in that sector since June 2012.
- Leisure and Hospitality -- a key North Andover sector which saw a boom locally last year with several new restaurants opening in 2011 and 2012 -- saw a modest increase in jobs statewide since last June (0.2 percent), certainly nothing to write home about.
We can speculate all day, across the political spectrum, on the "why?" and "how?" surrounding the fluidity of North Andover's unemployment rate and its recent stubbornness in hovering above 6 percent. But at least it's lower than the national unemployment rate, still up at 7.6 percent.
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