PROVIDENCE – The nonseasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the Providence-Warwick-Fall River metropolitan area was 3.1% in April, a 0.8 percentage point decline year over year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Wednesday.
The report said that the Providence metro was among 306 of 389 metro areas nationwide to have an unemployment decline year over year in April, while the unemployment rate increased in 54 metro areas and remained unchanged in 26 areas.
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The Providence metro labor force was 681,362 in April, a 0.5% decline year over year. The number of unemployed in the area declined 5,718 people year over year to 20,814. Meanwhile, metro nonfarm payrolls in the area increased 0.8% year over year to 595,400.
In the New Bedford metro, unemployment declined 1.2 percentage points over the year to 3.8% in April. The labor force increased 1.2% year over year to 86,528. While the number of unemployed declined 23.5% to 3,289. The number of nonfarm workers on payrolls increased 1.7% to 67,500.
In the Norwich-New London, Conn.,-Westerly metro area, unemployment declined 0.9 percentage points year over year in April to 3.1%. The number of unemployed in the area declined 21.3% year over year to 4,416, while the labor force declined 0.2% to 140,292 people. The number of workers on nonfarm payrolls in the area remained unchanged at 128,700.
Nationally, the nonseasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 3.3%, a 0.4 percentage-point year-over-year decline.
The Ames, Iowa, metro area had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 1.3% in April, while the El Centro, Calif., metro area had the highest unemployment rate for the month at 16.2%.
The unemployment rate recorded for April for all of Rhode Island was 3%, a decline from 3.9% a year earlier. Both the labor force and the number of unemployed fell over the year, 0.9% to 545,577, and 22.4% to 16,304, respectively.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor. You may reach him at Bergenheim@PBN.com.
