Can’t Get a Job in Massachusetts

By Jim on November 16th, 2008

Anastos’s story is becoming increasingly common as thousands of unemployed Massachusetts workers flood the job market and find few businesses hiring in the face of the economic downturn. First-time claims for unemployment benefits in Massachusetts have surged about 30 percent from a year ago, according to the US Labor Department, and the number of jobless workers in the state has jumped by more than 40,000 since April, when the unemployment rate bottomed at 4.1 percent.

In September, the state unemployment rate hit 5.3 percent, the highest since 2004, and economists expect it to climb through at least the end of next year. Moody’s Economy.com projects unemployment in the state will peak in late 2009 at 6.5 percent, well above the 5.9 percent reached in the 2001 recession.

“I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg right now,” said Jerry Rubin, president of Jewish Vocational Service in Boston, a nonprofit that provides job training and career counseling. “The real impact of layoffs has not hit Massachusetts yet.”

While a lot of this is obviously due to the recent economic problems our country is facing, I suspect that at least some of it is also due to Massachusetts over-taxing and over-regulating businesses. Some businesses have already left that state and moved south or west.

If I was a business owner I would definitely not set up a business in Massachusetts and I sure as heck would be trying to figure out a way to get my business out of there if I had one already there. There are so many other states that offer much more to business owners.

Why would anybody in their right mind move to Massachusetts and start a business there?