Mass. Unemployment Rate Falls In October
BOSTON (AP) -- Massachusetts' unemployment rate fell from 8.4 percent in September to 8.1 percent in October, well below the national average of 9.6 percent, the Patrick administration announced Thursday.
The state figure was its lowest since April 2009 and, when combined with September's result, marked the steepest two-month drop since 1976.
"Job creation has been priority number one since day one and that strategy is propelling Massachusetts out of this recession faster and stronger than other states," Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement. "I will not rest until everyone who is looking for a job can find one."
Nonetheless, the governor said he will not be pressured into providing $25 million in tax credits for General Electric Co. in exchange for the aircraft engine maker withholding any further layoffs at its Lynn manufacturing plant. The Boston Globe reported the request Thursday.
Patrick said the state wants to accommodate GE "within reason" and in accordance with other state's practices, but he cited the decision by former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling to move his video gaming company to Rhode Island after Massachusetts refused to match the $75 million deal its neighbor offered.
"What he proposed on the table was really out of the bounds of what other states are doing," the governor said.
The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said preliminary job estimates for October show 3.19 million jobs in Massachusetts, an increase of 10,000, with most of the gains in education, health services and leisure-and-hospitality sectors.
The report does not factor in more than 1,000 layoffs announced by Massachusetts employers since Election Day on Nov. 2.
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