Massachusetts added 6,300 jobs in February despite drop in labor force

Massachusetts employers added jobs at a healthy clip in February even as the number of available workers dipped.

The state gained 6,300 jobs last month, led by the education-health and leisure-hospitality industries, according to US Labor Department data released on Friday. That followed an increase of 11,500 jobs in January, which was revised from a previously reported 18,300 jobs. Last year, employers hired an average of 2,200 workers each month.

The unemployment rate declined to 2.9 percent last month from 3 percent in January. The national rate was 3.9 percent in February.

Local hiring has been solid even though the labor force — the number of people with a job or looking for one — hasn’t recovered from a sharp drop during the pandemic. The labor force shrank by 1,700 people last month. Meanwhile, the US labor force is now above pre-pandemic levels.

Massachusetts has a higher percentage of older workers than the country as a whole. Retirements are one reason the local labor pool has not recovered from the pandemic drop-off.

The labor force participation rate for 25- to 54-year-olds averaged 85.6 percent in the 12 months ended in February, up from 85.2 percent in the same period a year earlier, a spokesman for the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said. The 12month average share of the 65-and-older population that is retired was 71.5 percent last month compared with 70.5 percent in February 2023.

North Dakota had the lowest jobless rate in February, at 2 percent, while California had the highest, 5.3 percent.

Here are the unemployment rates in New England:

Vermont: 2.3 percent. New Hampshire: 2.6 percent. Massachusetts: 2.9 percent. Connecticut: 3.4 percent. Rhode Island: 3.9 percent. Maine: 4.5 percent.