Unemployed Rhode Islanders: 30 Percent Out Of Work Over One Year
Friday, July 22, 2011
On the same day the Department of Labor and Training announced that the state’s unemployment rate had dropped to 10.8 percent, the Wall Street Journal released a startling report on the nation’s long-term jobless rate which said that more than 30 percent of unemployed Rhode Islanders were out of work for over a year in 2010.
The numbers weren’t surprising to some Rhode Island economists who say they don’t even paint the entire picture of how gloomy the employment outlook is for many Ocean State residents.
“The article is not much of a surprise for RI. Long-term unemployed who stop actively seeking employment don't show up in the monthly jobless number, a trend taking greater hold in RI,” URI Professor Len Ladaro said. “So, the published jobless number is not really much of a reflection of what is going on here.”
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Lardaro maintains that’s the real number Rhode Islanders should be paying attention to is the amount of people leaving the workforce in the state. He said there are a number of reasons people that are capable of working simply give up after possibly searching for work for over a year.
“People stop looking for work because they can't find anything locally (or in our case also in MA or CT),” Lardaro wrote in an e-mail to GoLocalProv. “Their skills may well not be appropriate for the jobs out there (structural unemployment). To the extent that is the case, and for our insured unemployed, according to DLT, more than half have high school degrees of less, this is true. We don't know if that holds for all unemployed, though.”
Lardaro said breaking the trend could be difficult given the weak housing market in Rhode Island.
“The obvious way for this trend to dissipate here is either for people to move from RI (but the housing market still isn't very strong, so they can't sell homes), get a job, and employment here has been picking up of late, and probably get re-training and acquire new and more marketable skills,” he said. “That might be difficult to do in RI, though, even with an improving employment picture, as our rate of growth has clearly been slowing of late.”
Dr. Mazze: Not Surprised
URI Economist Dr. Edward Mazze said he too was not surprised by reports of Rhode Island having a large long-term unemployment number. Like Lardaro, he pointed to other alarming facts such as the number of people that can’t find jobs in their trained fields.
“Not surprised that 30 percent have been out of work for a year or so,” Dr. Mazze said. “There are also many underemployed-working part-time or on jobs where their skills are not used effectively.”
Mazze agreed that there are a number of factors contributing to why Rhode Islanders go long periods without finding work.
“Reasons for long period to getting a job: Not many new jobs have been created in the state in the last couple of years. People stay in RI because they cannot sell their homes or spouse has a job. Competition for jobs exists from government employees who participated in special retirement programs to ensure getting a pension and health benefits. Unemployment benefits were enough to support the individual. And the reasons go on and on. And, many people give up,” he wrote in an e-mail to GoLocalProv.
Rhode Island Unemployment Down
Still, there is at least some reason for hope, according the DLT’s latest report.
“The number of unemployed RI residents—those residents classified as available for and actively seeking
employment—decreased by 700 over the May figures, falling to 61,300 in June, the 15th consecutive over-the- month decline,” the report says. “Over the year, the number of unemployed RI residents dropped by 5,700, a decrease of 8.5 percent.”
The national average for unemployment in June was 9.2 percent, up one-tenth of a point from May.