BARNSTABLE – New statistics point to an improving job market on Cape Cod.
The unemployment rate in Barnstable County dropped to 5.5 percent last month, down from 7.3 percent just a year ago. The jobless rate on Cape Cod is expected to continue falling in the coming months.
“Coming up in the summer time we’ll be down in the low fours for our unemployment rate,” said David Augustinho, the executive director of the Cape and Islands Workforce Investment Board. Augustinho added that unemployment rate in the low fours is considered full employment.
Augustinho points to an improving construction industry as a sign of the economy’s strength on Cape Cod. “We have recovered almost all of the losses the great recession over the last several years,” he said.
The state unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent last month, down from 5.5 percent a year ago.
Unemployment sits at 5 percent on Nantucket and 6.6 percent on the Vineyard.
Plymouth County checks in with a 4.3 percent unemployment rate, with Bristol County reporting at 5.3 percent.
