Maryland's unemployment rate returned to 7.2 percent last month after dipping to 7.1 percent in August, the federal government said Wednesday.
The state's unemployment rate was also 7.2 percent in May, June and July, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's revised estimates. It's a plateau of sorts after a rapid worsening in the job market that began a year ago, pushing Maryland's rate from a relatively low 4.6 percent the previous September to the current 26-year high.
But job losses have continued. Employers in the state cut 3,600 jobs last month, the Labor Department estimated. The numbers are preliminary and adjusted to try to account for seasonal variations in hiring and layoffs.
"The bad news is, there's no real expectation of a quick turnaround in this," said Richard P. Clinch, director of economic research at the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute. When it comes to the job market, "I don't think anybody's predicting a recovery until the middle or end of 2010."
Almost 215,000 Marylanders were looking for work but unable to find it last month. That's double the number at the end of 2007, when the recession began.
But with U.S. unemployment at 9.8 percent last month, most of the country has it worse. Maryland's rate was 14th lowest, tied with Hawaii and New Hampshire.
Christian S. Johansson, the state's secretary of business and economic development, pointed out that the construction sector added 1,400 jobs in September, breaking an 18-month string of cuts. Half the job loss in the state over the past year has come from construction companies, so he sees that upturn as a hopeful sign.
Clinch attributed it to stimulus spending on road projects and other infrastructure work. "That's not a systemic upturn in construction," he warned. "It's a short-term effect of government spending."
Johansson said he wants to better use long-term federal government spending - the money flowing into and out of federal facilities in Maryland. The state is launching a federal facilities advisory board next month to look at how to help connect more local businesses with contracting work from those agencies, and how those agencies can commercialize more of their science and technology innovations.
Government is one of only two major sectors that employs more people in Maryland now than a year ago - agencies created 5,800 positions, mostly at the federal level. The other growing sector is education and health services, which added 8,300 jobs.
