Unemployment Rate Improved to 3.4% Last Month

Massachusetts employment in September 2022 still lagged behind February 2020 numbers.

Massachusetts employers added 13,800 jobs in September, a significant increase after a revision cut down previously reported August gains, while the statewide unemployment rate ticked downward to 3.4 percent, labor officials announced Friday.

The job growth in September was driven by major gains in leisure and hospitality, which added 7,500 positions month-over-month, and education and health services, which added 5,100 positions.

The statewide unemployment rate also shed two-tenths of a percentage point as it fell from 3.6 percent in August to 3.4 percent in September, according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. That’s slightly lower than the national rate of 3.5 percent for September.

Labor officials last month announced that the Bay State added 6,400 new jobs in August, but on Friday they said they had revised that figure down to an increase of just 800 jobs.

Job growth has been steady during the recovery from the early upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, but total Massachusetts employment in September 2022 still lagged February 2020 — the final full month before the pandemic hit — by about 48,400 jobs.

Legislation to supercharge the state’s economy with billions of dollars in spending remains in limbo on Beacon Hill after Democrats, flummoxed by the emergence of nearly $3 billion in mandatory tax refunds, hit pause at the end of July.