CRANSTON – Rhode Island’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent in March from February’s 4.4 percent, bettering the U.S. rate for the second straight month, according to a report today by Adelita S. Orefice, director of the R.I. Department of Labor and Training. In March 2006, the state jobless rate was 5.2 percent.
By comparison, the national unemployment rate improved to 4.4 percent in March from 4.5 percent in February and 4.7 percent in March 2006.
“Rhode Island’s unemployment rate is the lowest since October 2000,” Orefice said, after three consecutive months of declines from December’s 5.1-percent rate.
The number of unemployed Rhode Islanders last month declined by 7.0 percent to 24,000 as the state’s labor force shrank by 1,800. The number of residents with jobs, at 553,700, was not significantly from February’s 553,800.
Employment at Rhode Island businesses improved slightly last month as the seasonally adjusted payroll edged up 200 jobs or 0.2 percent to 496,300. Compared with March 2006, employment increased by 4,500 jobs or 4.5 percent.
A 200-job month-over-month gain in accommodation and food services “was influenced by growth in fast-food restaurant employment,” the DLT said. Also gaining 200 jobs each were construction and other services. Two other sectors – professional and business services; and natural resources and mining – each added 100 jobs.
Those gains were partly offset by losses of 300 jobs in government and 100 jobs each in manufacturing; transportation and utilities; and financial utilities.
Rhode Island-based payroll employment last month reached an historic high of 496,300 non-farm jobs, the state’s fifth new high in only seven months, the DLT said today in a separate announcement. (Non-farm employment covers jobs in the public sector, private business and religious organizations, including commission-based and student jobs, but excludes the self-employed, private domestic work and agricultural jobs.)
The state’s resident employment – the number of Rhode Islanders working anywhere in the country – was at a near-record 553,700, the DLT said.
The average wage last month for manufacturing production workers in Rhode Island was $13.46 per hour, 4 cents per hour lower than in February but unchanged from March 2006, the DLT said. The average work week was 39 hours, 0.3 hours shorter than in February but 0.4 percent longer than in March 2006.
Additional in formation on the Rhode Island labor market is available at www.dlt.ri.gov.
