With the war in Iraq, the mortgage foreclosure crisis and many other factors dampening the economy nationally and in Rhode Island, observers have been predicting for a few months now that the state’s slow but steady job growth would grind to a halt.
And yes, it has slowed. But new figures from the R.I. Department of Labor and Training show that once again, the job count in Rhode Island has hit a record: 498,000 for May. That was up by 200 from April, with small gains across several industry sectors.
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“May represents the fourth straight month of job growth in Rhode Island,” said Adelita Orefice, director of the DLT, in a news release. “In fact, Rhode Island jobs have increased in eight out of the last ten months.”
But the state’s unemployment rate also rose last month, to 4.8 percent, the highest level so far this year and three-tenths of a point above the national unemployment rate, 4.5 percent. In April, Rhode Island had been on par with the U.S. unemployment level.
Still, officials stressed, the number of Rhode Islanders collecting unemployment benefits, 27,500, was “well below” the number in May 2006, which was 29,900.
The number of employed Rhode Islanders, on the other hand – which includes those who work outside the state but live here – has gone up and down in the last few months. It peaked at 553,800 in February, was down to 549,800 in April, and partly rebounded, to 551,900, in May.
Orefice has said that one of Rhode Island’s strengths in this uncertain economy is that it has a wide range of industries creating jobs, even if it’s in smaller numbers than, say, the Route 128 corridor in Massachusetts has been known to produce in its specialty, technology.
From April to May, the DLT reported gains in construction, transportation and utilities, and health care and social assistance (300 jobs in each), and smaller gains in retail trade, financial activities, arts, entertainment and recreation, and government.
The manufacturing sector, meanwhile, shed a net 700 jobs, with the biggest losses in chemical manufacturing, textiles and food manufacturing. Wholesale trade shed 400 jobs, the DLT said. Year over year, the Rhode Island job count is up 6,100, a 1.2-percent increase, with the largest gains in professional and business services (1,900) and construction, financial activities, and health care and social assistance (1,400 each).
Manufacturing employment is down by 2,300 jobs. The average hourly manufacturing wage, however, has risen 32 cents in the last year, to $13.74. Manufacturing employees worked an average of 39.6 hours per week in May, the DLT said, up half an hour from a year ago.
