Unemployment Rate Spikes Again: 10.8 Percent
Friday, January 20, 2012
Rhode Island’s economy ended 2012 on a sour note, with the unemployment rate going up in each of the final two months of the year, according to the Department of Labor and Training.
The state’s unemployment rate spiked by three-tenths of a point in December, up to 10.8 percent. The number is the highest it has been since July 2011, but seven-tenths of a point lower than it was in December 2010. The state has consistently reported one of the highest unemployment rates in the country since 2009, with the number peaking at 11.8 percent between December 2009 and March 2010.
The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in December, down two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month and down nine-tenths of a percentage point from December 2010.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAccording to the latest jobs report, the number of unemployed state residents increased by 1,600 over the November figures, rising to 60,800 in December, the highest level since July 2011. Over the year, the number of unemployed RI residents dropped by 5,400.
The number of employed residents was unchanged over the November figures, remaining at 503,400 in December. Over the year, the number of employed RI residents was down 7,700 from December 2010.
The state’s labor force totaled 564,200 in December 2011, up 1,500 from November but down 13,100 from December 2010 estimates. The labor force increase was due entirely to the increase in the number of unemployed residents. This is the third consecutive month that the RI labor force has increased, following nine consecutive months of decreases.
Jobs Lost
The DLT report also estimates that nonfarm payroll in Rhode Island totaled 458,700 in December, reflecting a loss of 600 jobs from the revised November employment estimate of 459,300 (revised upward by 1,100) and marking five consecutive months of job declines.
In his monthly “Current Conditions Index” released Monday, University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro expressed concern about the labor force continuing to get smaller.
“One other indicator, the labor force, has continued to perform very badly on a yearly basis, as it has now failed to improve every month since February,” he said. “But it too has begun to improve on a monthly basis, and along with this monthly improvement has come higher levels of resident employment, a very positive sign, and a falling unemployment rate.”
Lardaro predicted that it was too early to tell which way the state’s economy is trending.
“The pressing question for now is whether Rhode Island’s economy has broken out of the neutral range it has been stuck in for many months,” he said. “Several elements within the November data that suggest that this might be the case while others imply that sustained improvement might not materialize. All of this is complicated by likelihood of revisions to the existing labor market data, as data for the final months of the year are those most likely to be changed when rebenchmarking occurs. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
If you valued this article, please LIKE GoLocalProv.com on Facebook by clicking HERE.
