Report: Mass. recovery continues to outpace nation's

May 26, 2011|By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff

By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts economy continues to recover ahead of the nation due to the strength of the state's education, health care, and high-technology sectors, yet many people continue to struggle, the University of Massachusetts reported today.

A key element of the state's recovery has been a rise in exports to other countries, including Germany, China, and India, largely due to a relatively weak dollar, the report said.

"Overall it's good news, we're moving in a positive direction," said UMass Dartmouth public policy professor Michael Goodman, co-editor of MassBenchmarks, the UMass journal that released the analysis. "But there are still troubling imbalances."

The quarterly report is based on an assessment of conditions by the journal's editorial board, which comprises economists from several Massachusetts universities and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The recovery, the economists said, has been slow and uneven, and the state continues to struggle with a moribund housing market and persistent long-term unemployment.

While parts of Greater Boston have fared well during the recovery, many cities around the state continue to struggle with double-digit unemployment. Fall River, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, and Springfield all have unemployment rates near or above 10 percent, the report said, well above the state's 7.8 percent overall unemployment rate in April.

The national rate of unemployment is 9.0 percent.

The report, conducted in collaboration with the Boston Fed, recommended that those communities aim to improve public education and rebuild infrastructure to create jobs and economic opportunities.

"It is understandable that in many areas of the Commonwealth the news of economic recovery is greeted with profound skepticism and the fact that Massachusetts is performing better than the nation as a whole is of little consolation to residents of these communities," the report said.

The group said it was encouraged by April job growth in manufacturing and construction -- two areas hit hard during the recession. Among other positive signs: the state economy grew at a more than 4 percent annual rate in the first quarter -- about twice as fast as the national economy -- and state income tax collections have been above projections, a sign that people are working and earning more.

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