Posts Tagged ‘Massachusetts’
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Heartbreaking news today from the Boston Globe: The Massachusetts unemployment rate last month rose to its highest level since the 1970s as employers cut more than 9,000 jobs and work remains scarce.
The jobless rate rose to 9.3 percent in September from 9.1 percent in August, exceeding the percent peak rate of 9.1 percent reached during the deep New England recession of the early 1990s, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said in a press release.
It is the highest rate since 1976, when the state was recovering from a recession spurred by soaring energy prices following the Arab oil embargo and the collapse of traditional manufacturing industries.
Tags: Business, jobless, Massachusetts, recession, unemployment
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Monday, October 5th, 2009
From CBS News: AT&T held a job fair in Massachusetts this week, looking to hire 100 sales people for its stores.
“Folks that would never have thought to work in retail before are coming out of the woodwork,” Steve Krom a vice president of AT&T New England.
Since the recession began in December 2007, 7.2 million jobs have been lost and the unemployment rate has doubled, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.
“I think the worst is over, but that doesn’t mean you go straight up from here. I think it is going be a long slog to get us out of this hole we’ve dug ourselves into,” said David Wyss, chief economist with Standard & Poor’s.
According to a new survey, only 40 percent of employers are planning to rehire former workers. So new jobs will need to come from new industries.
Tags: Innovation, Jobs, Massachusetts, New England, technology
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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
From US News and Reports: 10 Best Places for Tech Jobs -
These cities boast economies where job openings are the most numerous.
It’s a recession, so few things are booming and no city is exactly thriving. But within the tech industry, some cities clearly have more job opportunities than others. Although tech employment overall has suffered along with the rest of the economy, there’s been variance: High-tech manufacturing jobs have been shed more rapidly, while IT service jobs—in engineering and in software services, for instance—have fared better. And one future bright spot: Over the next three years, the federal government is projected to make 11,500 new hires in information technology jobs, according to a report by the Partnership for Public Service.
Boston
Boston has become a hotbed of high-tech innovation in fields such as biotech and software, says Robert Buderi, founder and chief executive of Xconomy. Universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University are a powerful draw for employers—and highly fertile ground for start-ups. Last year, when Microsoft opened its first East Coast research lab in nearby Cambridge, the company touted its ability to reach the “large community of scientists in New England, notably the faculty and students at the many premier academic institutions in the vicinity.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that programmers and software applications engineers in nearby Lowell, Mass., rank among the highest paid in all U.S. metro areas. Silicon Valley may once have been a necessary career stop, but today, tech workers can spend their entire careers in New England, Buderi says.
Tags: Boston, Innovation, Investment, Jobs, Massachusetts, New England, technology
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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
From Masschusetts’ State House News Service: NEW GROUP PLEDGES “STRONGER CHORUS OF VOICES” FOR BIZ: Business groups have launched a new effort aimed at getting Beacon Hill leaders to more clearly focus on job retention and creation policies. Jobs for Massachusetts Now, an offshoot of the five-month-old Jobs for New England Now, was created in part because business leaders feel there’s not been enough effort by state and local policymakers to make Massachusetts more competitive for businesses and development. “We have come together to encourage policymakers to make decisions that will help businesses recover during this fragile time and hopefully get more Massachusetts residents off the unemployment line,” Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said in a statement. The other coalition members are Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), South Shore Chamber of Commerce, Metro South Chamber of Commerce, and National Federation of Independent Businesses Massachusetts. John Regan, executive vice president of AIM, said: “Many business leaders believe that a stronger chorus of voices is needed to let state legislators and state officials know that every move they make impacts local businesses and in turn, affects business owners’ ability to provide jobs. That is why we decided to join this organization.” Massachusetts has lost more than 109,000 jobs in the past year and its unemployment rate in July was 8.8 percent, up from 8.6 percent in June. The Legislature’s Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee kicked off a four-stop “listening tour” in April to hear testimony about potential pro-growth policies. The tour ended in July. The group plans to highlight studies, opinion pieces, news and commentary on its website www.jobsformassachusetts.org. Its executive director is veteran lobbyist Paul Moran of the Dewey Square Group, a veteran state government analyst who has worked on behalf of health care, insurance and municipal interests during his career.
Tags: Beacon Hill, Jobs, Massachusetts, policymakers
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