PROVIDENCE – Unemployment in Rhode Island declined 1.7 percentage points year over year in May from 5.3 percent to 3.6 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data released on Wednesday.
The number of unemployed Ocean State residents in May decreased by 8,844 people from May of last year to 20,063. The labor force increased in the same time frame by 1,818 to 550,225. Employees on nonfarm payrolls in the state increased by 6,600, a 1.3 percent rise, to 500,200 workers in May.
The unemployment rate declined 0.5 percentage points from April to May event as the number of unemployed people fell 2,546 even as the labor force fell by 233 people.
The Providence metropolitan area also reported year-over-year increases in the size of the labor force as well as a drop in the number of unemployed people. The BLS said that the metro area labor force increased by 6,099 workers to 680,715, while unemployment fell year over year from 5 percent to 3.9 percent, placing the metro at No. 160 out of the nation’s 388 metro areas for the lowest jobless rate, and No. 25 among the nation’s 51 largest metros. The number of unemployed measured by the BLS in the region was 26,512, a reduction of 2,297 year over year.
The Denver and Nashville metro areas were tied for the lowest unemployment rate of large metropolitan areas in the nation with a 2.3 percent unemployment rate in May.
The BLS said that unemployment rates were lower in May than a year earlier in 298 of the 388 metropolitan areas across the nation.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor.
