Maybe we don't need the low wage jobs after all

At 7 % for Nov., Mass. unemployment falls to lowest rate in nearly three years
By Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts unemployment rate last month fell to its lowest point in nearly three yeas as employers added jobs for the second consecutive month, the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported today.

Unemployment in the state fell to 7 percent in November, down from 7.3 percent in October -- the lowest rate since December 2008. The national unemployment rate was 8.6 percent last month.

Massachusetts employers added 5,000 jobs in November, after adding nearly 12,000 in October.

“There’s good news here,,” said Northeastern economics professor Alan Clayton-Matthews. “The fact that we have two months of positive payroll [employment] growth and three months of positive labor [force] growth -- it’s all good.”

Economists consider an increasing labor force as a sign of an improving job market. When more jobs are available, more people tend to come off the sidelines and look for work. Only those who are employed or actively looking for work are counted in the labor force.

The state’s labor force increased by 4,700 last month, and nearly 26,000 over the past three months.

In another positive signal for the economy, the US Labor Department reported today that the number of people filing first time claims for unemployment benefits nationally declined for the second straight week, to 366,000. That’s the lowest level since May 2008.

In Massachusetts, six of 10 private employment sectors added jobs last month, with the largest increases in leisure and hospitality, which gained 4,300 jobs. Trade, transportation and utilities grew by 3,000 jobs, mainly due to gains in retail and wholesale trade.

Other sectors that drive the state’s economy also posted gains. Education and health services added 900 jobs. Financial services gained 700. Professional, scientific and business services, which includes a variety of technology firms, gained 500 jobs in November, the 12 consecutive month of gains fro

Those additions were offset by losses in other areas, including government, where the number of jobs declined by 1,800; and in the manufacturing and construction sectors, which each lost 1,400 jobs.

In general, Massachusetts has performed better than the nation as a whole during the recovery largely because of the composition of the state’s economy, said Michael Goodman, a professor of public policy at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. The state’s unemployment rate consistently has been better than the nation’s, in part because the Massachusetts labor force is generally better-educated than the national labor force, he added.

“Our workers are more productive as a group so that’s allowed employers to hang on to more of them during the downturn,” Goodman said.