The Massachusetts unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 percent in August, its lowest point in 15 years, the state announced on Thursday.
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Despite the rate staying the same over July’s figure, the number of unemployed people in MI actually edged upward slightly in August by 2,000.
“As we move forward and work to continue our comeback, it’s encouraging to see that Michigan’s unemployment rate remains below the national average and more than 10 points lower than its peak in the summer of 2009”, Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement.
“Not only are we seeing more people become employed and see more jobs created, we’re also seeing our workforce expand”, said Labor Commissioner Mark Butler.
The U.S. jobless rate was also unchanged, but at a slightly higher 4.9% in August.
Overall, the state has 90,000 more people working in the total employment survey, with the number of unemployed men and women down by 28,000 since August 2015.
Butler says Georgia has gained about 104,000 jobs over the past year.
Total employment in MI this year declined somewhat over the summer months; however, overall employment in the state has shown solid gains in 2016, officials said. “As we see more and more people continue to come to Georgia, we see our labor force continue to grow, which means it adds more people to go into these jobs that we’re seeing that are open right now”. The number of unemployed in MI rose by 2,000.
The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased by 8,401, or 23.6 percent, to 27,238 in August. However, when compared to August 2015, which had 316 claims, the figure rose by 36.7 percent. One fifth of the claims filed were due to temporary layoffs.
“These were good jobs”, Butler said.
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