Bleak forecast for R.I. economy

KINGSTON – All indicators in a state poll of economic trends show a negative direction for the Rhode Island economy at the end of the third quarter, the first time since 1980 that the index has been uniformly negative. The 1980 poll preceded the 1981 recession. Indicators used for the URI/Providence Journal Economic Index include manufacturing employment, down 1.19 percent; industrial kilowatt hours, down 0.19 percent; retail and wholesale trade employment, down 0.63 percent; single family housing permits, down 5.34 percent. The average for the nine element considered in the index was down 0.61 percent. The only element that was up was actually a negative: the national average of weekly claims for unemployment, up 1.72 percent. Glenworth Ramsay, a URI economist who manages the index, told the Providence Journal that “It will be a year before we begin to see any meaningful recovery.”