R.I. unemployment down in October

KINGSTON — While acknowledging that Rhode Island’s unemployment rate had dropped to its level since the start of the current recovery, URI Professor Leonard Lardaro insisted that it would be unwise to draw too optimistic a conclusion from that statistic without considering other factors. Among those factors, which make up Lardaro’s current conditions index are Benefit Exhaustions, which indicate more long-term unemployment, an increase in New Claims, indicating more layoffs; Hourly Wage Growth reduced to one percent, indicating less wage pressures, and lower growth rate for Miscellaneous Service Employment, which fell below one percent in October, continuing its downward trend -below two percent annual growth rates since June. Lardaro’s index also showed existing housing rate fell at a 5.3 percent annual rate while single unit permits fell at a 22.4 percent annual rate — which he called recession rates. On the brighter side, Lardaro noted retail sales had risen at a 5.6 annual rate and that manufacturing man hours had risen in October, a notable departure from the steady decline of manufacturing in the state in recent years.