PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island had the second-highest rate of unemployment in the nation in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said of Friday.
The state’s 12.8% unemployment rate was only lower than Nevada’s rate of 13.2% for the month.
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Read PBN’s full breakdown of Rhode Island’s August employment figures here.
Year over year, Rhode Island experienced a labor-force contraction, an increase in the number of unemployed and a decline in nonfarm payroll. Month to month, however, nonfarm employment increased, coinciding with a decline in the labor force and a rise in the number of unemployed.
Nonfarm employment increased month to month in 40 states, the BLS said. Year over year, all but one state, Idaho, experienced nonfarm employment declines in August.
Rhode Island was the only New England state with a month to month increase in the unemployment rate, rising 1.5 percentage points. Kentucky was the only other state to also experience a month-to-month increase.
The national unemployment rate fell by 1.8 percentage points over the month to 8.4%.
The Rhode Island unemployment rate was 3.5% in August 2019, making its year over year rate of increase the third highest in the country at 9.3 percentage points, behind only Hawaii and Nevada.
Other New England unemployment rates in August:
- Vermont: 4.8%, a decline of 3.5 percentage points month to month
- New Hampshire: 6.5%, a decline of 1.5 percentage points month to month
- Maine: 6.9%, a decline of 3 percentage points from July
- Connecticut: 8.1%, a decline of 2.1 percentage points year over year
- Massachusetts: 11.3%, a 4.9 percentage-point decline month to month, the sharpest drop in the nation.
