PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s unemployment rate fell below 11 percent for the first time in almost two years when it ticked down a tenth of a percentage point in April to 10.9 percent, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training said Friday.
The state picked up 1,800 jobs during the month, the third consecutive month of job gains, the DLT said.
Meanwhile, the national jobless rate increased two-tenths of a percentage point in April to 9 percent. In Massachusetts, the unemployment rate dropped from 8 percent to 7.8 percent last month, also Massachusetts’ lowest point in nearly two years.
The Ocean State’s unemployment rate hasn’t been this low since it was 10.8 percent in June 2009 before climbing to 11 percent the following month. Rhode Island hasn’t seen a month-over-month increase in the joblessness rate since December 2009, when the rate peaked at 11.8 percent. But the descent has been slow, dropping just three-tenths of a percentage point over the course of 2010. The rate has lowered by another six-tenths since the start of 2011.
For April, Rhode Island’s net job gain boosted the nonfarm payrolls to 462,200, which meant the state had 4,000 more jobs than it had a year earlier, when unemployment was 11.7 percent.
The number of unemployed residents – those classified as available for work and actively seeking employment – sank by 900 in April to 62,100. The state’s labor force also declined by 900 for the month to 571,100, down 5,100 from the April 2010 figures.
But the number of employed Rhode Island residents increased by 100 in April to 509,000, up 400 from a year earlier.
The average weekly claims for unemployment benefits decreased by 3,411 to 35,930 in April, down 8.7 percent from March and down 11.7 percent from April 2010.
The DLT said the retail trade and the health care and social assistance sectors reported the largest gains for the month, adding 1,400 and 1,100 jobs, respectively. The DLT said the retail gains were attributable to hiring in grocery stores, automotive vehicle and parts dealers, and building material and garden equipment suppliers. In the health care and social assistance sector, the largest job gains were seen in hospitals and ambulatory health services.
Gain also came in accommodation and food services (300), financial activities (300), educational services (300), information (200), manufacturing (100), “other services” (100), and transportation and utilities (100).
Professional and business services lost 800 jobs, mainly due to cutbacks in the administrative and waste services. Construction shed 600 positions because of reductions among specialty trade contractors. Also posting losses were government (500) and wholesale trade (200).
Natural resources and mining, as well as arts, entertainment and recreation were unchanged in April.
Manufacturing-production workers in Rhode Island earned an average hourly wage of $15.42 in April, up 23 cents from March and up 73 cents from a year earlier.
The state’s average manufacturing work week in April was 39.6 hours, down three-tenths of an hour from March but up 1 1/2 hours from last year, DLT said.
