Is Attleboro a special case? Jeremy Thompson, research coordinator at MassUniting, provided WGBH with an analysis of data from the Massachusetts Office of Labor and Workforce Development. His research indicates, he said, that Attleboro has indeed experienced worse unemployment during the recession than the state as a whole.
These numbers all come from the the Massachusetts Office of Labor and Workforce Development. They are “not seasonally adjusted.” City-level unemployment rates are only available on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. State-level unemployment is available on a seasonally adjusted basis, and the official June 2012 unemployment rate for Massachusetts was 6.0%. But for the purposes of comparing a city to its surrounding state, using non-seasonally adjusted numbers is fine, since both Attleboro and Massachusetts are subject to the same seasonal fluctuations in terms of weather, holidays, school openings and closings, etc. Everything you always wanted to know about seasonal adjustment is here.
Attleboro v. Mass. Unemployment
