Despite criticism, job stats positive sign, experts say

Although the latest job numbers have sparked criticism nationwide, proving another obstacle for President Barack Obama, experts said August’s unemployment rate is a step in the right direction.

The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent in August, with 960,000 new jobs nationwide, according to an employment summary the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday.

Although the seasonally adjusted rate is a 1-percent decrease from last year, it puts the country back to where it was in April, as unemployment rates wavered between 8.2 and 8.3 percent from May to July.

While Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign called the jobs report “a hangover” after the Democratic National Convention’s party, media outlets speculated whether the latest job numbers would hinder Obama’s reelection campaign.

But some professionals said the numbers are not as disappointing considering changes since August 2011.

“Although recovering jobs has been slow, slower than we would have liked, indeed there are improvements that are tangible,” said Claudia Olivetti, an associate professor of economics at Boston University.

“Jobless recovery” is a feature of the past three recessions that people cannot simply blame on Obama’s policies, Olivetti said.

“There is this hype that this is really bad, a little bit, but if you compare to what was going on and where we were one year ago, this is substantial improvement,” she said.

Massachusetts, which has stayed below the national unemployment rate over the past year, has not been hurt as badly as other states in the recession, experts said.

BLS statistics show the unemployment rate for the state increased slightly from 6.0 to 6.1 percent in July.

“We have been under the national rate for so long now that I think that it’s not just a coincidence of monthly reporting,” said Greg Bialecki, secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Economic Development. Although the state’s job numbers will not be released until next week, Bialecki said, Massachusetts can expect for it to be a couple points below the national average.

The state has a balanced budget with modest tax increases, Bialecki said, one of many factors that helps Massachusetts stay below the national unemployment rate.

The housing bubble also did not affect the Commonwealth as directly as the rest of the country, he said.

Bialecki said the high number of college students in the state definitely adds to the economy in a positive way.

“These days a lot of the college students who come here and stay here are starting companies, so that adds to the job mix,” he said. “But the fact that others are coming here and staying here really adds to the reputation of Massachusetts.”

Businesses want to locate and expand in Massachusetts because they consider it one of the best places in the nation “to find young talent,” he said.

Olivetti also said the high volume of college students attracts firms looking for highly skilled workers.

As a state with a more highly educated workforce and more high-skilled intensive set up industries, Massachusetts is better off than other states, she said.

“There are certain industries that are hit more than others,” she said. “In general, industries that use high-skilled workers more intensively have been less affected and are picking up earlier.”

Despite the pessimism surrounding the nationwide numbers, Bialecki said 2012 was definitely a better year than 2011.

The country is consistently headed in the right direction, he said.

“We see this as being in Mass., but also in the U.S. … a positive trend … and we expect a 2013 that is even better,” Bialecki said.

But Sylvia Beville, the executive director of Partnerships for a Skilled Workforce, Inc., said the 96,000 new jobs across the nation is not positive.

Beville said the nonprofit, which serves communities people from just outside Greater Boston to central Massachusetts, provides career centers for job search, locates company openings for potential employees and works with employers to develop training programs.

“When I talk to people they’re holding back on hiring, and I think that the whole national scene is one reason that we’re seeing such sluggish job growth,” she said.

Employers are just not certain on the election and on some aspects of healthcare reform, she said, and they are not willing to start hiring lots of new people.

There is a lack of people with correct skills, she said, and an absence of resources needed to launch full-scale training programs.

Beville said many firms are not willing to take on people as a general rule, and when they are they cannot find the proper skilled workers.

“We need to generate at least 5,000 jobs a month in order to start to recapture the jobs lost during the recession,” she said, “and we have not done that.”