CRANSTON – Employment at Rhode Island businesses last month swelled to a record 499,800 jobs, after seasonal adjustment, 300 more than the revised August tally of 499,500, according to a report today by the R.I. Department of Labor and Training.
“This represents the eighth consecutive month of job growth in Rhode Island,” DLT Director Adelita S. Orefice said in a statement. Ocean State payrolls have swelled by 3,900 jobs since the year began and 4,300 jobs since September 2006.
From August to September this year, the largest gains were in accommodation and food services (adding 500 jobs), led by restaurant hiring; other services (adding 400), led by repair and maintenance and personal services; and health care and social assistance (up 300). Also expanding were employment in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector (by 200 jobs) and retail trade (by 100).
Partially offsetting those gains were declines in professional and business services, educational services and government, losing 300 jobs each; and in manufacturing, wholesale trade and the information sector, losing 100 jobs each.
Meanwhile, after two months of increases, the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent, a decline of 0.2 percentage points from the 5.1 percent of both the preceding month and the year-ago period. By contrast, the U.S. jobless rate increased in September to 4.7 percent from the 4.6 percent of the month-ago and year-ago periods.
The number of unemployed Rhode Island residents fell to 28,500, 300 fewer than in August and 1,200 fewer than in September 2006. The state’s resident employment – the number of Rhode Islanders who had jobs anywhere in the country – surged to 552,000, an increase of 9,900 over the month and 2,700 over the year.
Last month’s average manufacturing wage for Rhode Island production workers was $13.95 per hour, an increase of 1 cent per hour from August and 50 cents from September last year. Manufacturing workers worked an average of 39.5 hours per week in September, the same as in August but 0.3 hours per week more than in September 2006.
Additional information on the Rhode Island labor market is available from the R.I. Department of Labor and Training at www.dlt.ri.gov/lmi.
