Providence Jobs to See Slow Recovery
Posted on June 16, 2009
It could take more than half a decade for Providence jobs to recover to a pre-recession level.
A new report from IHS Global Insight predicts that unemployment in the Providence-Fall River-Warwick area will not return to its pre-recession rate until after 2014. The report also predicts that Rhode Island‘s annual rate of job growth will average between .5 percent and 1.1 percent between now and 2014.
Providence is one of 71 metropolitan areas that aren’t expected to return to recent employment peaks until after 2014. Other areas include Cleveland, Detroit and Los Angeles. In comparison, the Boston area is expected to return to its pre-recession employment level by the second quarter of 2014. The analysis is part of a study of 325 of the 363 metropolitan areas throughout the country.
The report predicts that only six metro areas will recover all of the jobs they lost during the recession this year, while only five will see all of their jobs recovered by 2010. Almost 90 percent of all the regions analyzed will not recover until at least 2012.
This recession is unique because of the way it leveled the playing field, James Diffley, IHS managing director of U.S. regional services, told McClatchy. The precipitating factor, after housing, was the finance industry, and that affected everybody. Now everybodys cutting back on debt, and the banks are being more cautious about lending, so theres less spending. All those things mitigate against a quick turnaround.
During April, the area’s unemployment rate stayed at 11.4 percent and the area had a total non-farm employment of 548,500 workers, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 541,400 workers during March, but a 4.4 percent decrease from last year.
