Gloucester’s unemployment rate fell significantly between February and March, amid numbers showing gains of more than 100 workers on the job while nearly 100 fewer were listed on the unemployment rolls.
The latest job statistics released by the state’s Executive office of Labor and Workforce Development show that Gloucester’s jobless rate fell from 7.7 percent in February to a March rate of 7.1 percent.
That rate remains higher than the figures for Cape Ann’s towns, and is also well above the statewide rate of 5.0 percent. But Gloucester’s early 2015 unemployment continued to run far below the corresponding figures for the previous year, with the 7.1 rate in March comparing favorably to the March 2014 rate of 9.0 percent.
The statistics included in the state report also show that 14,696 Gloucester residents were documented as working in March. That’s up from the 14,588 who were holding down jobs in February, and more than 500 ahead of the 14,134 who were on the job in March 2014.
