PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island has the second highest unemployment rate in New England, at 3.5% in November, seasonally adjusted, level with the national rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The unemployment rate in the Ocean State declined by 0.5 percentage points year over year, the second fastest decline in the region, the bureau said last week.
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Rhode Island’s jobless rate was only lower than Connecticut’s in New England. Vermont continued to have the lowest unemployment rate in the country in November.
Rhode Island experienced an increase in labor force, nonfarm jobs and a decline in the number of unemployed year over year.
Unemployment figures for other New England states in November:
- Vermont: 2.3%, a decline of 0.3 percentage points year over year
- New Hampshire: 2.6%, a 0.2 percentage-point increase year over year
- Maine: 2.8%, a 0.7 percentage-point decline year over year
- Massachusetts: 2.9%, a decline of 0.3 percentage points from one year prior
- Connecticut: 3.7%, a 0.1 percentage point dip from November 2018
Maine and Vermont both experienced year-over-year declines in their labor forces in November, the only two states in the region. Vermont was the only state in the region to see a decline in nonfarm payrolls from one year prior. The BLS said that Maine and Vermont’s unemployment rate declines were the only statistically significant unemployment changes in New England.
