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24/7 Wall Street has compiled a ranking of the 35 metro areas and cities that have suffered the most job losses due to the pandemic.
Worcester, Boston, Springfield, and Pittsfield all made the list.
Our neighboring states fared better. There are no communities from Connecticut, Vermont, or New Hampshire on the list. New York and Pennsylvania are, however, well represented.
There are currently about 13.6 million Americans out of work now. The unemployment rate stood at 10.2 percent when the analysis was conducted.
Here’s how Massachusetts communities ranked on the list of 35 local economies hardest hit by COVID-19 (the higher the rank, the worse the economy is suffering). Data is from July, the most recently available seasonally-adjusted employment numbers:
Worcester #21
Unemployment rate: 14.5 percent
Year-to-date change in employment: -13.8 percent
Worcester has shed more than 48,000 jobs since January, 24/7 Wall Street reported.
Springfield #14
Unemployment rate: 15.9 percent
Year-to-date change in employment: - 17.7 percent
Pittsfield #6
Unemployment rate: 17.8 percent
Year-to-date change in employment: -19.1
Before the pandemic, the Pittsfield unemployment rate was 3.4 percent.
Other Massachusetts communities that made the list re Boston and Barnstable.
The top five cities that were hardest hit by COVID-19 include locations in Arizona, Hawaii, New Jersey, and California.
The city economy that suffered most during the pandemic, so far, has been El Centro, California where the unemployment rate is 25.8 percent. The community has the second-highest concentration of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. with about 5,633 positive cases per 100,000 people, 24/7 Wall Street reports.
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