PROVIDENCE – The unemployment rate in the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metropolitan area fell in April compared with the prior month, the U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday.
The metro area’s jobless rate fell to 12.5 percent in April from 13.2 percent in March, the government said. The total number of unemployed workers was 88,500, a decline from 93,600 in March but an increase from 72,600 in April 2009. (None of the figures are seasonally adjusted.)
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El Centro, Calif., continued to have the nation’s highest metropolitan unemployment rate in April at 27.9 percent, while the rate in Bismarck, N.D., was lowest at 3.6 percent.
Compared with a year earlier, the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro area’s April jobless rate rose two percentage points, from 10.5 percent in 2009 to 12.5 percent. That was a smaller year-over-year increase than in March, when the jobless rate rose from 11 percent to 13.2 percent.
The Providence area’s total civilian labor force grew 2.2 percent compared with last year, from 694,300 in April 2009 to 709,200 in April 2010. The monthly change in the labor force in April was a decrease of 1,100 from March’s figure.
A separate survey of employers found the number of employees on nonfarm payrolls in Providence-Fall River-Warwick was 525,700 in April, up from 520,300 in March but down from 542,200 in April 2009.
The New Bedford metro area’s jobless rate was 12.8 percent in April, down from 13.8 percent in March but up from 10.3 percent in April 2010. There were 11,100 unemployed workers in New Bedford in April, out of a total civilian work force of 86,800.
The Taunton-Norton-Raynham metropolitan division, which is a subset of the Boston metro area, posted an April jobless rate of 9.8 percent, down from 10.2 percent in March but up from 8.3 percent in April 2009. The Taunton region had 6,300 unemployed workers out of a total civilian work force 64,200 in April.
