NEW: Rhode Island’s Unemployment Rate Drops to 46-Month Low
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Backing up a report issued earlier this month that Rhode Island’s economy was on the rebound, the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training has just issued a revised labor force statistics that the state’s unemployment rate has dropped below 10 percent for the first time since February of 2009.
The decline was due in large part to a total number of 465,600 jobs in RI, a number that was 6,000 higher than estimated.
December’s 9.9 percentage unemployment rate continued a year-long decline for the Ocean State.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“While estimates of the RI monthly unemployment rate originally indicated an uptick in spring 2012, the revised rates show a consistent month-to-month decline in the RI unemployment rate over the year, from a high of 10.8 percent in January to a low of 9.9 percent in December.” the DLT said. “In a similar vein, the number of unemployed RI residents for December 2012 was 55,600, 2,200 less than originally estimated.”
All told, 10 of the 14 industry sectors saw a higher benchmark revision for the number of jobs.
The highest gains were reported in the Professional & Business Services (+1,900), Other Services (+1,700), Accommodation & Food Services (+1,600), Health Care & Social Assistance (+1,500), Retail Trade (+1,500), Financial Activities (+1,000) and Government (+800) sectors.
The only downward revisions came in the Educational Services (-1,300), Information (-1,100), Manufacturing (-1,000) and Construction (-600) sectors.
