Bay State’s jobless rate on the rise

LYNN ? The state labor office reported Thursday that the unemployment rate in Massachusetts increased during July to 8.8 percent, reflecting a loss of 2,800 jobs.According to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, the jobless rate in June was 8.6 percent.The Web site SimplyHired, which tracks employment rates by city, reported that the number of jobs in Lynn has decreased by 19 percent since December 2007. The city’s leading industries in 2008-2009 were educational services, health care, and social assistance, providing one in five jobs. Retail trade accounted for 13 percent of Lynn jobs and manufacturing 9 percent. Hospitals, clinics and out-patient facilities, home health care organizations and retail stores were responsible for most of the jobs.Jobs related to leisure and hospitality showed the largest gains in July, while those in government and manufacturing experienced the heaviest losses. Construction remained the hardest hit of all job classifications and fewer seasonal jobs were available, according to labor office spokeswoman Alison Harris.In July, the national unemployment rate was 9.4 percent, compared to 9.5 percent in June.Harris said that at 3,184,300, jobs are down 109,400 or 3.3 percent from one year ago, with 102,500 of the net job loss occurring over the seven month period between September 2008 and April 2009.Government jobs were down 2,000 over the month, with losses in state and local agencies more than offsetting the small job gain in federal government positions.