Unemployment Rate Remains Below the National Average
Maryland Adds 18,200 Jobs Over-the-Year
BALTIMORE (Jan. 23, 2018) – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today released state jobs and unemployment data. Though Maryland jobs decreased by 20,200 in December, the unemployment rate, currently at 4.0 percent, remains below the national average of 4.1 percent. Since December 2016, jobs are up by 31,400, an over-the-year change of 1.1 percent.
Last month, job gains were seen in the information sector, while several sectors experienced declines. The Professional and Business Services sector saw the most decline, with the majority of those losses coming from the Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services and Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services subsectors.
A review of the year-to-year data shows a decrease of 4,000 new unemployment insurance claims in December 2017, compared to the same month the previous year. Further, the total number of Maryland employers is higher than it has been since 2008. Given these numbers, the discrepancy in total job numbers will be assessed to determine the variances in reported data.
Since January 2015, Maryland has gained 111,500 jobs and its unemployment rate has decreased by 1.4 percent. Professional and Business Services gained the most jobs over the past year (up 11,000), followed by Education and Health Services (up 10,800), Government (up 6,500), Mining, Logging and Construction (up 5,700), and Manufacturing (up 100).
In the metropolitan statistical areas, Silver Spring-Frederick-Rockville gained the most jobs over the past year (up 9,200). This area was followed by Baltimore-Columbia-Towson (up 8,500) and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, Md. portion (up 3,000).
November’s preliminary jobs estimate as reported by BLS was revised downward 500 jobs, to a gain of 4,900 jobs.
About the Maryland Department of Labor
The Maryland Department of Labor is committed to safeguarding and protecting Marylanders. We're proud to support the economic stability of the state by providing businesses, the workforce, and the consuming public with high-quality, customer-focused regulatory, employment, and training services. For updates and information, follow the Maryland Department of Labor on Twitter (@MD_Labor), Facebook and visit our website.
Note: Data is spidered in on the DLLR website directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) using Datazoa and a slight lag may exist as the database is refreshed.
For immediate access to this month's jobs data please go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website.
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