Boston Globe: Mass. job growth was 4 times greater than estimates
The Boston Globe published the findings of a MassBenchmarks analysis which re-examined 2011 Massachusetts employment estimates. The MassBenchmarks release is a follow-up to data released earlier this year by the Labor Department which showed the Bay State’s job gains to be dramatically lower than had been initially reported by many of the state’s economists.
The new data, a census of Massachusetts employers compiled by the US Labor Department, offers the most complete and reliable snapshot of the state’s labor markets. It showed that Massachusetts added nearly 40,000 jobs in 2011, four times the revised employment estimates reported earlier this year by federal officials.
Alan Clayton-Matthews, economics professor at Northeastern and senior contributing editor of MassBenchmarks, was quoted in the piece, seeing the new results as neither tragic nor triumphant, “I wouldn’t jump for joy over the performance in 2011, but I wouldn’t be dismayed about it either.”
In addition, Martin Romitti, managing editor of MassBenchmarks and an economist at the UMass Donahue Institute was cited in the article, explaining “The data tells us it has been a really steady recovery instead of a sluggish one in Massachusetts.”
Romitti said job growth in 2012 may not be as solid as last year’s, particularly if national or global economies continue to slow. Massachusetts is particularly vulnerable to the economic crisis in Europe because about 40 percent of the state’s foreign exports are sold there.
Read article: Boston Globe: Mass. job growth was 4 times greater than estimates
July 12, 2012
