Metro area jobless rate continues improvement in September

THE NONSEASONALLY adjusted jobless rate for the Providence-Fall River-Warwick area dropped four-tenths of a percentage point in September to 7.5 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
THE NONSEASONALLY adjusted jobless rate for the Providence-Fall River-Warwick area dropped four-tenths of a percentage point in September to 7.5 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

PROVIDENCE – The nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate for the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro area dropped four-tenths of a percentage point in September, improving to 7.5 percent from 7.9 percent a month earlier.

The rate remains higher than the national jobless rate, which in September was 5.7 percent, a drop from 7 percent a year earlier. But the rate is significantly lower than it was a year ago when it was 9.2 percent.
From August to September, 4,000 jobs were lost, but on a year-over-year comparison, the region gained 2,100 jobs, from 689,800 to 691,900, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The number of jobless also dropped, from September 2013’s 63,300 to 52,000 last month.
The metropolitan area with the highest unemployment was Yuma, Ariz., 25.9 percent, while Bismarck, N.D., had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.1 percent.

The bureau said unemployment rates were lower in September than a year earlier in 339 of the 372 metropolitan areas, higher in 26 areas and unchanged in seven areas. The Providence-Fall-River-Warwick area fell into the first category.

The jobless rate for Rhode Islanders, at 7.3 percent, remained the highest in New England. New Hampshire was the lowest at 4 percent. Other rates are as follows: Vermont, 4.2 percent; Maine, 5.2 percent; Connecticut, 5.9 percent; and Massachusetts, 6.2 percent.

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Nonfarm payroll employment – based on the number of jobs in the defined region as opposed to the number of people working – also increased over the year in 314 metropolitan areas, decreased in 53 areas and was unchanged in five areas.

In the Providence-Fall-River-Warwick area, it increased 1.4 percent, or 7,900 jobs, from 564,100 in September 2013 to 572,000 in September 2014.

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