Posted on: 07/27/12

The latest MassBenchmarks bulletin indicates that the Massachusetts state economy grew at a rate of 4.0 percent during the second quarter of this year, outpacing that of the U.S, which recorded a rate of 1.5 percent growth for the second quarter.

State unemployment fell one-half a percentage point during the same quarter, from 6.5 percent in March to 6.0 percent in June, while the U.S. unemployment rate remained at 8.2 percent.

Long-term unemployment and underemployment continue to be major challenges for the Commonwealth and the nation. In June, the broader U6 measure of unemployment (which includes discouraged and marginally attached workers, and those working part-time because they can't find full-time work) was 12.2 percent in Massachusetts and 14.9 percent nationally.

The leading index is projecting a moderate slowdown in state economic growth in the second half of the year, to 3.7 percent in the third quarter and 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter. Dr. Alan Clayton-Matthews, MassBenchmarks Senior Contributing Editor and Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Northeastern University, attributes the pending slowdown to continued weakness in Europe, slowing growth in China, weak growth in the U.S. economy and persistent uncertainty about the looming "fiscal cliff."

MassBenchmarks is published by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Read the full bulletin, “State Growth Continues to Outpace Nation in Q2, UMass Journal Reports,” (MassBenchmarks, 7/27/12)