IT Jobs in Rhode Island Add Positions, Other Industries Decline
Posted on October 29, 2008
Those who currently have or are seeking IT jobs in Rhode Island are among the most lucky in the state.
Rhode Island‘s information industry was the only one to see an over-the-year increase in jobs during September, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry employed 10,800 workers during September, down from 10,900 in August, but an increase of 3.8 percent from last year.
The state saw a total non-farm employment of 478,200 workers during September, down from 479,500 during August and a decrease of 2.6 percent from last year. The industry that took the hardest hit was natural resources and mining, which employed 200 workers, the same as August, but a 33.3 percent decrease from last year.
The industries that saw an over-the-year decrease include: construction by 3.3 percent; manufacturing by 6.5 percent; trade, transportation and utilities by 3.6 percent; professional and business services by 2.2 percent; leisure and hospitality by 1.4 percent and government by 2 percent. The education and health services industry employed 99,900 workers, down from 100,200 workers during August and the same as last year.
The state has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 8.8 percent, an increase from August’s rate of 8.6 percent and higher than the national unemployment rate of 6.1 percent.
Economists don’t expect Rhode Island’s economy, which has lost several jobs, to return to normal until 2013, according to an article by Forbes. The state’s economy peaked at 490,400 jobs during the last quarter of 2006.
“Rhode Island has long been losing manufacturing jobs, and its economic problems intensified more than a year ago when a bubble in housing prices burst well ahead of national trends,” the article notes.
“The housing market continues to drag down the state economy,” the article continues. “For example, (Mike) Lynch (of IHS) said about 15 percent of subprime mortgage loans in Rhode Island were in foreclosure during the second quarter, the fourth-highest foreclosure rate in the country.”
