Rhode Island Unemployment Increases
Posted on July 28, 2009
The State of Rhode Island is among those that are not seeing any relief from the current economic recession, with the state continuing to lose more jobs and Rhode Island unemployment continuing to increase.
During June, Rhode Island saw its unemployment rate increase from 12.1 percent to 12.4 percent, which is higher than the national unemployment rate at the time of 9.5 percent. The state has not seen its unemployment rate decrease since January 2007, when it went from 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent.
Rhode Island had a total non-farm employment of 462,900 workers during June, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 463,800 workers during May and a 4.1 percent decrease from last year.
Only one industry managed to add jobs when compared to last year, and that increase was minimal. The education and health services industry employed 99,900 workers during June, up from 99,700 workers during May and a .1 percent increase from last year.
The mining and logging industry didn’t add or lose jobs, as it employed 200 workers, the same as during May and the same as last year. Once again, the construction industry saw the biggest decline in jobs. That industry employed 17,900 workers during June, down from 18,100 workers during May and a 12.7 percent decrease from last year.
Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in jobs during June include:
- manufacturing by 10.8 percent
- trade, transportation and utilities by 5.5 percent
- information by 6.5 percent
- financial activities by 3 percent
- professional and business services by 5.1 percent
- leisure and hospitality by 1.4 percent
- government by 3.3 percent