Jobless rates stay low across Attleboro area

In all the 10 communities covered by The Sun Chronicle, October’s jobless rates fell below 3.5%, the first time that’s been true since the end of pandemic business shutdowns in March of 2021. The Federal Reserve considers an unemployment rate of 4% or below to be full employment.

Attleboro, the area’s largest community, saw its jobless rate fall a tenth of a percentage point to 3.4% compared to September. That was the highest rate in the area but still more than a full point down from October of last year.

In nearly every other town, October’s jobless rates remained unchanged from September’s numbers, ranging from 3% in Norton and North Attleboro to 2.3 in Mansfield and Wrentham, tied for the lowest rate in the area.

In most cases, the October rates were down by full percentage point or more from October of last year.

Overall the immediate Attleboro area did better than the state as a whole, keeping up a trend that’s been evident for months.

The state’s October total unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, up one-tenth of a percentage point over-the-month, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development announced Friday. That kept the state below the national average of 3.7%.

The state’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ preliminary estimates showed Massachusetts gained 9,800 jobs in October. That’s sharply down from last month’s revised gain of 22,900 jobs. The largest over the month private sector job gains were in financial activities, professional and business services, and government. Employment now stands at 3,710,600. Since the employment trough in April 2020, Massachusetts gained 659,600 jobs.

There were some other troubling signs as well.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since August, although still low by historic standards.

The Labor Department reported that 240,000 people applied for jobless aid last week, up by 17,000 from the week before. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, rose by 5,500 to 226,750.

In Massachusetts, about 5,772 individuals filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, up 488 from the week prior, according to the Labor Department.

To combat inflation that hit four-decade highs earlier this year, the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate six times since March.

The housing market has buckled under the strain of mortgage rates that have more than doubled from a year ago. And many economists expect the United States to slip into a recession next year as higher borrowing costs slow economic activity.

But the job market has remained strong. Employers added 261,000 jobs last month and are creating an average of nearly 407,000 a month this year — on pace to make 2022 the second-best year for hiring (after 2021) in government records going back to 1940. There are nearly two job openings for every unemployed American. The unemployment rate is 3.7 percent, a couple of ticks above a half-century low.

New weekly applications for unemployment benefits were extremely low early this year — staying below 200,000 for much of February, March and April. They began to tick up in late spring and hit 261,000 in mid-July before trending lower again.

“We expect layoffs to rise as demand softens in response to higher interest rates,’’ Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a research report. “However, the move is likely to be gradual given businesses are still struggling with labor shortages and will be reluctant to cut their workforce.’’