Maryland’s Jobless Rate Getting Worse

Maryland’s jobless rate worsened in July amid signals that large employers will continue to cut jobs in a sputtering economy, according to a fresh government report and outside analysts.

The state’s unemployment rate in July rose to 7.2 percent, up from 7.0 percent in June, Maryland Labor Secretary Alexander M. Sanchez reported Friday.

The state's jobless rate rose at the same time the national unemployment rate fell slightly to 9.1 percent in July, down from 9.2 percent in June, according to reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

The new numbers come at a time when large private employers in the state, such as Lockheed Martin and Bank of America, are announcing job cuts.

Lockheed Martin announced July 19 a voluntary severance program to eliminate 6,500 jobs, many at the company’s Bethesda headquarters. Other news accounts have stated that Bank of America would eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs nationwide over the next year.

Sanchez said Friday that state officials had had no conversations with Bank of America on how the cuts would affect Maryland, but expected such meetings to take place soon.

The July employment report also directly reflected the closing of 22 in the state, a move that eliminated some 1,500 jobs.

Neil L. Bergsman, director of the Maryland Budget & Tax Policy Institute, said the situation is also looking uncertain for federal government employment, a traditional mainstay of jobs in Maryland.

“We’re told that a big deficit reduction package is in the works and that can only mean a drop in federal employment” in Maryland, Bergsman said.

“On top of that, the U.S. Postal Service is talking about cutting 125,000 jobs, and Maryland will get its share of that pain,” he said.

The July jobless statistics “are another disappointing report. The unemployment rate has been drifting upward since the spring, so we seem to be headed in the wrong direction,” Bergsman said.

Maryland's jobless rate is doing better than 18 months ago, when the state hit a recent high in unemployment of 7.7 percent, he said. But recent trends raise the fear that Maryland may return to the previous record levels by the end of the year, he said.

Meanwhile, elevated levels of unemployment continue to plague minority communities across Maryland, Sanchez said.

The official unemployment rate for white workers in July was 6.2 percent, 8.6 percent for Hispanic workers and 11.1 percent for African-Americans.

Even these figures underrepresent the full extent of the unemployment problem, Bergsman said, because so many workers have ceased active job searches or are currently underemployed.

If such workers were included in the official statistics, the rate would increase by about 5 percent, he estimated.