Massachusetts – New Estimates – Jobs grew faster in 2011

A close examination of unemployment insurance data shows that Massachusetts has been gaining jobs faster than people thought, according to a new report issued Thursday by MassBenchmarks and the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts.

But even the new numbers show just 1.2 percent growth, not the 2.5 percent growth considered healthy by economists, said Martin A. Romitti, director of economic and public policy research at University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute located in Hadley.

The state added 39,000 jobs in all of 2011, Romitti said. Statistics from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a gain of just 9,000.

But Romitti said the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses a survey of employers to get its jobs number.

“There you get all the types of things that happen with surveys,” he said. “You talk to people who have had a bad year but that are not representative of the whole.”…

via Report: Massachusetts grew jobs faster in 2011 than previously thought | masslive.com.