Click here to view a larger version.) / " title="AVERAGE LOCAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATES from July 2008 to June 2009 are shown on a map. (Click here to view a larger version.) /"/>PROVIDENCE – The metropolitan area that encompasses Providence, Fall River and Warwick had the fifth-highest jobless rate in June among the 49 largest regions in the U.S., the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said today.
The Providence region’s unemployment rate was 12.1 percent in June, up from 12 percent in May and 7.3 percent a year earlier, the agency said. A total of 85,700 local residents were counted by the government as out of work and looking for a job.
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Regional joblessness was slightly lower than the 12.4 percent rate for Rhode Island as a whole in June, but far higher than the 8.6 percent rate in Massachusetts last month.
All 49 metropolitan areas with a population of 1 million or more in 2000 saw unemployment rise in the past year, the agency said. The figures are not seasonally adjusted.
The highest jobless rate among them in June was recorded in the Detroit metropolitan area, where unemployment reached 17.1 percent. Also ahead of the Providence region was the Riverside, Calif., area at 13.7 percent; Charlotte, N.C., at 12.4 percent; and Las Vegas at 12.3 percent.
The agency said 18 out of the 372 metropolitan areas of any size in the U.S. had jobless rates of 15 percent or higher in June, while nine areas had rates below 5 percent. But all 372 saw unemployment increase compared with a year earlier.
