Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rate reflects the percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed. To be considered unemployed, an individual must be age 16 or older, without a job, have actively looked for work within the previous four weeks, and be currently available to work. The civilian labor force is the population 16 years old and over that is either employed or unemployed but excludes all inmates of institutions and persons on active duty in the Armed Forces. Importantly, the unemployment rate does not capture “discouraged workers,” or those who want a job but have given up their active search for work due to poor labor market conditions. The unemployment rate is highly correlated with Gross Domestic Product, or economic performance. As the economy strengthens, the unemployment rate tends to fall, while in times of recession, unemployment rises.
New England's unemployment rate was higher than the nation's throughout much of the 1970s. By the late 1970s and through most of the 1980s, however, the region's rate fell faster and remained well below the national rate, in some years by more than two percentage points. New England kicked off the 1990s in deep recession and experienced a three-year stint of high unemployment rates that once again surpassed the national rate. Recovering after 1993, regional unemployment declined rapidly through mid-2000 amidst the economic boom. Despite the onset of the recession in early 2001, the joblessness rate has generally remained below the national rate through February of 2009.