BOSTON - Tuesday, March 10, 2009 --- The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported the preliminary January area unemployment rates, not adjusted for seasonality, were higher in all of the Commonwealth's labor markets.  Job losses were also recorded in all twelve of the State's labor areas for which unadjusted estimates are published.  The over the month and over the year job losses and increases in the unemployment rates reflect the breadth of the deepening national recession which has reached all of the Bay State's labor markets.

The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy and Amherst area unemployment rate changes are less than the statewide experience. The sharpest and steepest unemployment rate impacts are in the New Bedford, Fall River, Lawrence-Methuen-Salem and Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner* areas.

Statewide, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate increased from 6.5 percent in December to 8.1 percent for January. 2009. The unadjusted unemployment rates and jobs estimates for the labor markets may show different trends than the statewide seasonally adjusted estimates.

The statewide seasonally adjusted January 2009 unemployment rate released last week rose from 6.4 percent in December to 7.4 percent. Statewide, the seasonally adjusted jobs estimate for January showed over the month and over the year losses.

NOTES: The February 2009 unemployment rate, labor force data and survey of jobs for Massachusetts will be released on March 19, 2009, local unemployment statistics will be released on March 24, 2009. Detailed labor market information is available at www.mass.gov/lmi.

With the release of the January 2009 estimates, the historical sub-state Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) series for 2008 have been revised.
*With the release of the January 2008 estimates, the data for the Pittsfield and Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner NECTA areas are no longer validated by US DOL BLS. As defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Metropolitan New England City and Town Areas (NECTAs) must have an urbanized area population of 50,000 or more, while a Micropolitan NECTA must have an urban cluster population of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000. A NECTA containing a single core with a population of at least 2.5 million may be subdivided to smaller groupings of cities and towns referred to as NECTA Divisions.