BLS: Providence metro July unemployment drops to 4.2%

THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE in the Providence metro area declined 0.5 percentage points year over year to 4.2 percent in July. / BLOOMBERG NEWS FILE PHOTO/LUKE SHARRETT
THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE in the Providence metro area declined 0.5 percentage points year over year to 4.2 percent in July. / BLOOMBERG NEWS FILE PHOTO/LUKE SHARRETT

PROVIDENCE – The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Providence-Warwick-Fall River metropolitan area was 4.2 percent in July, a 0.5 percentage point decline year over year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Wednesday.

The unemployment rate in Rhode Island was 4.1 percent in July, a 0.6 percentage point decline year over year. The United States unemployment rate in July was 4.1 percent, a decline from 4.6 percent in July 2017.

The Providence metro civilian labor force increased 2.4 percent year over year to 707,131, while the number of unemployed individuals declined 7.9 percent to 29,702. The number of employees on nonfarm payrolls in the metro area was 602,400 in July, a 2.2 percent increase year over year.

Rhode Island nonfarm payrolls increased 2.6 percent in that time to 509,100. The number of unemployed in the Ocean State was 23,337, an 11.2 percent year-over-year decline. The labor force in the time increased 9,465 people, or 1.7 percent, to 571,460.

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The New Bedford metro area had 5.6 percent unemployment in July, a slight decline from 5.7 percent a year earlier. The number of unemployed people in the area increased by 108 people year over year to 4,983 in July. At the same time the labor force in the New Bedford metro grew 3.8 percent to 89,077 in July.

Nonfarm payrolls in the New Bedford metro totaled 68,700 in July, a 700-worker, or 1 percent, increase year over year.

In Massachusetts, the unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in July, a 0.1 percentage point decline year over year. In that time, nonfarm payrolls increased 4.8 percent to 3.9 million.

Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor. He can be reached at Bergenheim@PBN.com.

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