PROVIDENCE – The Providence-Warwick-Fall River metropolitan area unemployment rate in June dipped to 13.5%, not seasonally adjusted, from 16.7% the previous month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday. The June rate is an increase of 10.1 percentage points year over year.
The nonseasonally adjusted Rhode Island unemployment rate in June was 12.1%, while the national rate was 11.2%.
The labor force in the metro area totaled 689,375, a decline of over 4,000 individuals year over year. The number of unemployed in the region totaled 93,158, nearly tripling from figures one year prior.
Nonfarm employment in the metro area in June declined by 10.7%, or by 64,400, to 540,200 jobs.
The unemployment rate in the New Bedford metro area was 21% in June, an increase from 4.5% one year prior. The number of unemployed in the area increased from 3,941 in June 2019 to 18,251 one year later. The unemployment rate declined 0.4 percentage points month to month. The New Bedford metro labor force totaled 86,971 in June, roughly level with one year prior.
The Massachusetts unemployment rate was 17.5% in June.
The unemployment rate in the the Norwich-New London, Conn.- Westerly metro area was 13% in June, a decline from 15% one month prior but a rise from 3.7% in June 2019. The number of unemployed in the area totaled 18,321, while the labor force totaled 140,396.
