Belmont's Jobless Rate Jumps ... A Little

A 14 percent rise in the town's unemployment rate in the past month shows that the stagnant national economy has impacted Belmont.

But the "Town of Homes" continues to do better on the jobs front than just about anywhere outside of South Dakota.

The state's Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported that 75 Belmont residents joined the unemployment rolls between May and June. Currently, 607 are officially looking for work.

But the town's seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate of 4.4 percent is well below the state's 6.3 percent in June and nearly half that of the US which stands at 8.2 percent. 

Compared to a year ago, Belmont has shown strong job retention among its citizens. In June of last year, 5.5 percent or 745 residents were jobless. 

In fact, more Belmont residents were working in June, 13,087, than in May 12,920, showing that citizens are returning to the workforce. 

Statewide, the June seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 6.3 percent, up 0.5 of a percentage point from 5.8 percent recorded in May. Over the year, the statewide unadjusted rate was down 1.3 percentage points from the June 2011 unadjusted rate of 7.6 percent.

The labor force, unemployment rates and jobs estimates, for Massachusetts and for every other state, are based on statistical methodologies specified by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to the the state's Executive Office of Labor.