Economy
Massachusetts unemployment up slightly again, to 4.3%
The statewide unemployment rate continued to creep upward at a slow pace in February, climbing one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.3%, officials announced Friday.
Massachusetts again experienced slightly higher joblessness than the country as a whole, which had an unemployment rate of 4.1% in February. From February 2024 to February 2025, the statewide unemployment rate increased one-half of a percentage point.
The labor force participation rate, which measures how many people have or are actively seeking jobs, remained higher in Massachusetts, outpacing the national rate by 4.1 percentage points last month.
Different measurements of the total number of jobs showed varying trends, officials said. Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data counted 2,700 more Bay Staters employed in February than in January, but a separate payroll job estimate suggested the number of positions in Massachusetts dropped 2,400 over the same span.
Economists with MassBenchmarks said in their most recent report that the Massachusetts economy “remains a study in contradictions.”
“On the one hand, high-line economic indicators are generally positive: Unemployment is remarkably low, and inflation has finally returned to levels acceptable enough for the Federal Reserve to begin lowering interest rates. This is the ‘soft landing’ that economists were hoping for when trying to tame inflation without inducing another recession,” they wrote. “On the other hand, public sentiment about the economy remains largely negative, and while inflation is slowing, the ramifications of dramatic price increases over 2021 and 2022 certainly still impact most households today.”
