Lardaro: CCI fails to improve for ninth consecutive month

RHODE ISLAND'S Current Conditions Index failed to improve in April for a ninth consecutive month, negatively impacted by declines in single-unit permits, employment service jobs and the state's labor force. / COURTESY LEONARD LARDARO
RHODE ISLAND'S Current Conditions Index failed to improve in April for a ninth consecutive month, negatively impacted by declines in single-unit permits, employment service jobs and the state's labor force. / COURTESY LEONARD LARDARO

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – “Precarious” is how University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro characterized Rhode Island’s economy following the release Tuesday of a Current Conditions Index that has failed to improve for nine successive months.
April’s CCI came in at 58, the same measure recorded for February and March, Lardaro reported.
The index measures the state’s economic performance, or momentum, using a dozen different metrics. A CCI greater than 50 signals progress, while a value less than 50 indicates setbacks.
While the index is not without some positive measures, like rising payroll employment and healthy declines in Rhode Island’s unemployment rate, Lardaro wrote, Rhode Island’s current recovery has continued to become less broadly based.
“Unfortunately, our state’s cyclical negatives are gaining strength… The unfortunate effect is a dissipating [of] our state’s overall economic momentum, something we can ill afford given that we remain far below our prior employment peak and our jobless rate remains the highest in the U.S. in spite of its recent improvements,” he wrote.
Other positives in Aprils report included U.S. consumer sentiment, which climbed 10 percent; retail sales, rising 3.1 percent; private service-producing employment, rising 1.4 percent; total manufacturing hours, rising 4 percent; and declines in both new claims for unemployment and the state unemployment rate.
Benefit exhaustions, which reflect longer term unemployment, also improved in April, dropping nearly 25 percent.
Despite these constructive developments, Lardaro reported that single-unit permits, a housing construction indicator, declined by 4.5 percent and employment service jobs, which includes temporary employment and is a prerequisite to job growth, fell 1 percent. Labor force also declined by 0.5 percent, and has not risen since April 2013.
In addition, while the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in April, it remains highest in the nation, Lardaro said.

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