Jobless rate falls to 4.2% in Prov. metro in November

THE PROVIDENCE-Warwick-Fall River metropolitan area's unemployment rate at 4.2 percent was a percentage point less than a year before in November.
THE PROVIDENCE-Warwick-Fall River metropolitan area's unemployment rate at 4.2 percent was a percentage point less than a year before in November.

PROVIDENCE – Unemployment rates were lower in November than a year earlier in 271 of the 387 metropolitan areas in the U.S., including in the Providence-Warwick-Fall River metropolitan area, where the rate fell to 4.2 percent from 5.2 percent.

That’s lower than the national unemployment rate, which dropped four-tenths of a percentage point over the year to 4.4 percent last month.

In the remaining metros, rates were higher in 90 and unchanged in 26, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. It said rates were not adjusted for seasonality.

In November, the lowest unemployment rate was in Ames, Iowa, at 1.7 percent, while El Centro, Calif., had the highest unemployment rate, at 20.3 percent.

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Nonfarm payroll employment increased over the year in 303 metropolitan areas, including the Providence metro, where it grew 1.1 percent, to 590,800 from 584,500. It decreased in 73 metro areas, and was unchanged in another 11 areas.

The largest over-the-year employment increase was 117,300 in New York-Newark-Jersey City, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa., while the largest decrease over the same time period was in Lafayette, La., where 7,200 jobs were lost.

The Providence metro saw its number of unemployed fall to 28,819 in November from 35,365 in November 2015. The civilian labor force also fell over the year, to 680,747 from 681,587.

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