Raimondo Picks & Chooses Jobs Numbers - Claims Improvement As RI Loses 500 Jobs
Friday, April 20, 2018
At 10 a.m on Thursday morning, the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training released the March jobs numbers. Rhode Island saw little movement — the state lost 500 jobs and saw a slight improvement of one a tenth of a point in the unemployment rate.
For the eight years GoLocal has been publishing, under three different Governors -- Don Carcieri, Lincoln Chafee, and Gina Raimondo -- the same measure has been reported each month by DLT.
However, less than five hours after the DLT reported the state lost 500 jobs, Raimondo was claiming 700 new jobs and record employment.
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In a release, Raimondo said, "This report is a signal that Rhode Island continues to move in the right direction. Four years ago, our state was struggling to bounce back from the recession and we needed to revamp our approach to economic development. Since that time, we've gone from the worst unemployment rate in the country to in-line with the national average. We brought dozens of new and expanded businesses into our state, created thousands of good-paying jobs, and put people throughout Rhode Island back to work.”
The press release claimed, "The number of employed Rhode Islanders is up 700 from February and up 4,200 over the last 12 months. In that same period, the state added 6,400 new jobs.”
When asked about the new numbers, Raimondo’s office admitted that they used a different data source rather than what has been the standard reported data by DLT -- or what they usually made comments on.
While DLT was using the standard “job count number” which showed the 500 jobs lost, instead the Raimondo press office linked her statement to the data for “data on the number of working Rhode Islanders” and claiming 700 new jobs.
Toggling Back and Forth
A GoLocal review found that while DLT was consistent each month in reporting the number of jobs, Raimondo’s press office toggled back and forth to find the best number.
The data reporting or manipulation sparks memories of Mark Twain's infamous quote, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
The past year has been only a minor win for the Raimondo. While manufacturing and construction have been growth areas for Rhode Island’s economy, the number of new jobs is just 6,400 — an improvement of just 1.28 percent growth. Manufacturing lost a total of 1,100 jobs and construction lost 500 in the past month according to DLT. Government and transportation sectors added jobs.
And, while Rhode Island’s unemployment rate has dropped to 4.5 percent, Rhode Island trails the national average of 4.1 percent.
When asked if the Governor was satisfied that the total number of new jobs grew by just 1.28 percent over the past 12 months, Josh Block, Press Secretary for Raimondo told GoLocal, “Rhode Island has seen unprecedented job growth since Governor Raimondo took office, particularly in manufacturing and construction. In 2012, nearly one in four construction workers were looking for work. This year we saw more jobs in construction than at any point in the last decade. And with dozens of businesses moving or expanding here and over one hundred roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure being repaired in the next year, we're confident we'll continue to see this growth going forward."
Related Slideshow: GoLocal: Benchmark Poll, October 2017
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