Metro unemployment down in MD

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released July employment data today for metropolitan areas. All four metros in Maryland have lower unemployment than a year ago.

Maryland's (not seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in July, down from 7.4 percent in the same month in 2011. Baltimore-Towson's rate was 7.7 percent, down slightly from 7.9 percent. The decline in Cumberland was also slight, from 8.2 to 8 percent unemployment. By comparison, the improvement in Salisbury and Hagerstown-Martinsburg was more significant. Salisbury moved from 9.3 percent unemployment to 8.6 percent; while Hagerstown-Martinsburg fell almost a full percentage point, from 8.9 percent to 8 percent unemployment.

These are encouraging developments, but it is important to remember that there are still roughly 223,000 unemployed Marylanders looking for work.

The other bit of data released by BLS today was the number of jobs in each metro area. Again, all four Maryland metros improved at least slightly. While the number of jobs in Baltimore-Towson only grew by one tenth of one percent over the past year, Cumberland grew 1.7 percent. Hagerstown-Martinsburg added 0.6 percent more jobs, and Salisbury added 0.8 percent more. Statewide, Maryland added 0.9 percent more jobs.