Belmont's Unemployment Rate Stays Below 5 Percent

Belmont's unemployment rate remains below five percent in October, just about at the level it was a year ago, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development's report of preliminary estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The data, released on Nov. 26, indicates 656 residents, or 4.8 percent of a labor force of 13,707, are without work by the end of October, an increase of 18 people from October 2012, when the rate was 4.7 percent. 

The state data is not seasonally adjusted. Once calculated, Belmont's adjusted rate will likely change.

Belmont's unemployment rate has been relatively steady since June when the number of unemployed spiked in June to 5.1 percent in part due to annual increase in recent graduates entering the workforce.  

The town's current unemployment rate is significantly lower then the state-wide October seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 7.2 percent and the 7.3 percent in the US. Over the year, the Massachusetts unemployment rate was up half-of-a-percentage point from the October 2012 rate of 6.7 percent.