More MDers employed than before Great Recession

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released state annual average employment figures for 2012 today. Maryland's annual average unemployment rate was 6.8 percent, half a percentage point lower than the previous year. This was significantly lower than the US unemployment rate of 8.1 percent.

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There were also more employed persons in Maryland in 2012 than there were prior to the recession. In 2008 employed Marylanders peaked at 2.89 million. Last year BLS found that there were 2.91 million employed Marylanders.

However, the state's employment to population ratio for those over 16 was still lower than it was in 2007. That year, the employment ratio was 65.2 percent. By 2010 the ratio had fallen to just 61.6 percent. In the past two years it has risen to 63.2 percent, but there is still ground to be made up.