WASHINGTON – Last week, economics website Wallet Hub announced that Manchester ranked 12th out of 180 cities across the U.S. when it came to year-over-year change in unemployment rates.
Only six of the cities in the study, which looked at data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, saw lower unemployment in March 2021 compared to March 2019 and only three saw lower unemployment in March 2021 compared to March 2020.
Manchester was not in either category, but its March 2021 unemployment rate of 3.8 percent was tied with Nashua and second only to the 2.5 percent unemployment rate in South Burlington, VT among New England cities.
“Compared to March 2020, Manchester does have a slightly higher number of unemployed people. However, this is true for most cities because the numbers were quite low at the start of the pandemic. Things got a lot worse as the crisis unfolded into April and May, and only now they’re starting to get back to normal. By comparison, only about 15 percent of the cities analyzed registered a decrease in unemployment versus March 2020,” said WalletHub Analyst Jill Gonzalez. “That being said, Manchester is among the cities where unemployment rates are bouncing back the most. Its current unemployment rate is 3.8%, the 14th lowest in the country, and a lot lower than the national average of 6 percent.”
A full list of all the cities can be found here.