PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s seasonally adjusted unemployment in August declined 1 percentage point year over year to 4.3 percent, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Thursday.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Ocean State held steady from July.
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According to the BLS release, Rhode Island was the only state in New England with a statistically significant year-over-year unemployment rate decline. Unemployment in Massachusetts increased 0.8 percentage points year over year.
The number of unemployed people in Rhode Island dropped from 29,500 to 23,700 from August 2016 to August 2017.
The Rhode Island labor force grew 0.7 percent year over year seasonally adjusted to 556,400 workers. The number of employed workers in the state increased 1.9 percent year over year to 532,700 workers seasonally adjusted.
The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in August was 4.4 percent, 0.5 percentage points lower than August of 2016.
New England’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points year over year to 4 percent in August. New England’s unemployment rate was the second lowest in the nation behind West North Central in the Midwest and tied with the Mountain region of the U.S. in the West.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor.
