Springfield's unemployment rate fell to 12.9%, but the city still had the 16th-highest unemployment rate in Massachusetts.
SPRINGFIELD – Springfield’s unemployment fell in March to 12.9 percent, down from 13.7 percent in February and 14.4 percent in January.
Springfield had the 16th-highest unemployment rate in Massachusetts behind a number of seaside towns that typically have very high unemployment rates in the winter months, according to statistics released Tuesday by the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
Seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates were down in 21 labor markets across the state and up only in Fall River, which had an unemployment rate of 18.2 percent, up from 18 percent in February.
After Springfield, Holyoke had the next highest unemployment of any Pioneer Valley community at 36th in the state with 11.3 percent unemployment. Holyoke's rate was also 11.3 percent in February, but down from 11.8 percent a year ago.
In Greenfield, unemployment fell to 7.6 percent from 8.1 percent in February and 9.4 percent a year ago. Amherst’s unemployment fell to 3.4 percent, down from 4.3 percent in February and virtually unchanged from the 3.3 percent recorded in March 2010.
Local unemployment numbers are not adjusted for seasonal changes in the economy and might reflect the spike of hiring headed into summer.
Statewide, the March seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 8.2 percent, a decrease of 0.4 of a percentage point from the revised February rate of 8.6 percent. The unadjusted rate was 8.2 percent statewide, down from 8.6 in February and 9.1 percent a year ago.
The state unadjusted unemployment rate was down 0.9 of a percentage point from the 9.1 percent rate in March 2010.
“By any standard, these are not big improvements,” said Robert A. Nakosteen, a professor of economics and statistics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management.
Nakosteen said the national economy is creating jobs, but spiking oil prices and major disruptions to Japan, a large trading partner, will hurt businesses.
“Everybody is throttling back their estimates of economic growth,” Nakosteen said. “It seems like just when we are about to prosper a bit events beyond our control have intervened.”
David C. Gadaire, executive director of CareerPoint, a one-stop job center in Holyoke, pointed to the employment, rather than the unemployment, numbers as a stronger indicator of a recovery. Springfield and its surrounding communities added 1,100 jobs in March, a growth rate of 0.4 percent, according to statistics from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. The region has added 2,100 jobs in the last year, a 0.7 percent rate of growth.
That growth trails statewide statistics showing 0.6 percent job growth in the last month and 1 percent job growth over the past year.
McDonald’s restaurants planned to hire 175 to 200 people just in the Pioneer Valley as part of the company’s nationwide national Hiring Day. Many of those are crew jobs paying the $8-an-hour minimum wage, said Wayne A. LeBrun of Belchertown, owner and operator of McDonald’s in Westfield, Easthampton, Northampton, the Holyoke Mall, Hadley and two in Greenfield. But he was looking for managers, too. Those managers are full-time and earn from $30,000 to $50,000 a year.
“Our sales are up and our number of customer visits is up,” LeBrun said, adding that McDonald’s are now open overnight and have added expanded beverage menus that require greater staffing. “We need more crew to serve our customers.”
Kevin E. Lynn, manager of business services and IT at FutureWorks, in Springfield, said other jobs are also opening up in a range of industries. Manufacturers hired more FutureWorks customers in March, he said.
