By Matthew K. Roy
The local job market took an optimistic turn last month, statistics released this week show.
Peabody, Salem, Danvers, Marblehead, Swampscott, Lynn and Nahant added 500 jobs in August, according to the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. The geographic cluster of communities — measured as a single entity by the state — was the only one of 12 regions in Massachusetts that didn't lose jobs.
The majority of the gain, roughly 400 jobs, was in local government. Given that most cities and towns have been shedding jobs, the number is difficult to explain, said Mary Sarris, executive director of the North Shore Workforce Investment Board, which oversees the area's unemployment centers.
"It's really hard to put your hand on what the jobs are with any specificity," she said.
It could reflect the rehiring of teachers laid off last spring by local districts or jobs attached to federal stimulus funded projects, she said.
Statewide, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate of 8.9 percent for August was unchanged from July. On the North Shore, too, rates held relatively steady.
Local Unemployment
City/town, August rate, August number, July number
Beverly, 7.8%, 1,689, 1,713
Boxford, 5.4%, 220, 235
Danvers, 8.5%, 1,247, 1,214
Hamilton, 7.4%, 296, 287
Ipswich, 7.4%, 554, 551
Manchester, 6.2%, 171, 173
Marblehead, 7.0%, 776, 768
Middleton, 8.3%, 363, 370
Peabody, 8.8%, 2,463, 2,458
Salem, 8.7%, 2,048, 2,084
Swampscott, 7.3%, 564, 573
Topsfield, 6.8%, 207, 229
Wenham, 8.4%, 153, 182
State, 8.9%, 309,600, 310,000
Source: State Labor and Workforce Development Office
