Are There Signs of Life in the Rhode Island Economy?

Revenues are Up

Similarly, revenue through the first month of the fiscal year were ahead of estimates by 9.5 percent.  The number may be corrected, but points to a positive movement and serves as an indicator that the "bleeding may have stopped."

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According to the Department of Labor and Training for the Rhode Island, the overall employment indicators are marginally positive, but a number of measures demonstrate that a true recovery is only starting at best.

All the employment numbers for July:

Rhode Island’s July 2010 unemployment rate dropped by one-tenth of a percentage point to 11.9 percent, the fifth consecutive over-the-month drop.

In July, Rhode Island added 1,500 private sector jobs but lost 900 Government jobs, including more than 800 temporary Census jobs brought on by the Federal Government.

In July 2010, the number of unemployed RI residents decreased by 1,000 from June to 68,300.

The number of RI residents employed in July 2010 decreased by 1,300 to 505,500.

The July 2010 jobless rate was up 0.5 percentage points from the July 2009 rate of 11.4 percent. The number of unemployed was 3,700 above the year-ago level.
 
The number of employed was up 3,500 from the July 2009 level, the fifth consecutive over-the-year increase.     

Rhode Island showed an annual decline in private sector jobs through June, losing 8,200 jobs (-2.1%) between June 2009 and June 2010. Jobs were down 1.0 percent in Vermont, 0.4 percent in Maine and 0.1 percent in Connecticut. Jobs were up 1.7 percent in New Hampshire and 0.2 percent in Massachusetts for the same period. (July data for other states was unavailable. June data are preliminary.)              

From December 2007 (the start of the national recession) through July 2010, private sector jobs were down 34,000, a decline of 8.0 percent.