New Bedford's unemployment rate has plummeted in the past year!

Last May, New Bedford was one of America's highest jobless rates in the country at 10.4%.

TSM/Arnel, Manalang
TSM/Arnel, Manalang
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Now it's May 2014 and we're happy to report that according to blogs.wsj.com the rate has gone down a whole 2.8% to 7.6%. This was the largest year-to-year drop among some of the major metropolitan areas in the country.

Total nonfarm payrolls rose to 71,000 in May, partly due, however, to the fact that the city's civilian labor force shrunk by 1.1%.

This is a trend that has been spreading throughout the country with 200,000 jobs coming up but workers are dropping out of the work force entirely. The participation rate in May 2013 was 63.4%.

Overall, though, it's good news for the unemployment rate. Jobless rates have been lower in almost all metropolitan areas as opposed to last year.

Glad to see New Bedford is in the lead with this and seeing some improvement!

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