Massachusetts unemployment rate creeps up, but state adds almost 14,000 jobs

The Massachusetts unemployment rate crept up to 5.6 percent last month even though the state added almost 14,000 new jobs.

The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development announced Thursday that with July's job additions, the state has added more than 67,000 jobs since July 2013.

The state unemployment rate ticked up from the 5.5 percent in June, and remained well below that national rate of 6.2 percent.

The professional, scientific and business services as well as the education and health services sectors added the most jobs.

The only sector that lost jobs was government.

The unemployment rate is based on a monthly sample of households. The job estimates are derived from a monthly sample survey of employers. As a result, the two statistics may exhibit different monthly trends.