Massachusetts Jobless Rate Rose as Foreclosed Houses for Sale Fell
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009The jobless rate in Massachusetts slightly increased in April to 8 percent from its March level of 7.7 percent despite a slowdown in the pace of foreclosed houses for sale in the state, based on data released by the state Labor and Workforce Development Office and by Warren Group.
Warren Group is a Boston-based firm that compiles real estate data and that publishes the banking and real estate weekly newspaper Banker & Tradesman.
Meanwhile, the nationwide jobless rate reached 8.9 percent last month, an increase from the 8.5 percent level in March, as the labor market effects of foreclosed houses for sale continued. In April last year, the jobless rate in Massachusetts was 4.8 percent while the nationwide jobless rate was 5 percent.
The state lost a total of 12,100 jobs in April, but this figure is significantly less than the nearly 20,000 jobs lost in March. Massachusetts continues to be affected by the nationwide recession, but the information industry added more jobs in April and job levels in the government sector were unchanged.
Job gains in federal offices offset job losses in local and state government offices. All other sectors reported job losses during the month of April.
The statewide total of 3,183,000 jobs is 3.5 percent below the level in April 2008, with a total of 93,900 job losses occurring in the last six months as a lot of homes continue to become foreclosed houses for sale.
According to Warren Group, the statewide total of foreclosure deeds in April dropped by 43.8 percent to 755 from the April 2008 deeds of 1,344 and fell by 20.8 percent compared to the 953 deeds in March.
The number of petitions to foreclose, which is the first stage of foreclosure in the state, fell by nearly 40 percent from the April 2008 level of 3,328 to 2,013 in April this year. The number of petitions also declined by 15.5 percent compared to the 2,381 level in March.
Timothy Warren Jr., chief executive of Warren Group, said that April’s foreclosure deeds represented the lowest monthly deeds in the last 12 months. Mortgage lenders have also been observed to be filing fewer deeds to turn homes into foreclosed houses for sale.
However, Warren is cautious about being excessively optimistic. He contended that the unemployment problem will continue to cause more homes to become foreclosed houses for sale, as shown in the rise in mortgage loan defaults.
