Rhode Island’s unemployment rate rose to 5.2 percent in August, up only slightly from 5.1 percent in July and a year before, but higher than the 4.9-percent national rate and a full percentage point above Massachusetts’ 4.2 percent, which is down from 5.0 percent a year ago.
Rhode Island still has more jobs than it did in August 2004 – about 6,400 more, excepting farm employment, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training said – but the job count is down by about 600 from July, ending a steady month-by-month rise since last October.
“While we don’t expect to see employment increases every month, the overall trend has been very encouraging – 10 out of 11 months of job gains,” DLT Director Adelita S. Orefice said in a news release. “This month’s decline follows a gain of 7,400 jobs over the past 10 months. Overall, we’re still on the right track.”
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Rhode Island employment continues to shift in familiar patterns: Since August 2004, education and health have added 2,700 jobs, leisure and hospitality have added 2,200, financial activities and professional and business services have added 1,300 each, and the construction industry has added 900 jobs.
At the same time, manufacturers have cut 2,100 jobs, and trade, transportation and utilities jobs have declined by 700, while government jobs have remained stable. The hospitality industry actually cut 200 jobs in August, but it had added 600 in July.
In Massachusetts, employers added 5,500 jobs in August, but the state saw its total labor force decline by 11,400. In the last year, 26,000 people have stopped working or looking for work in the Bay State, the Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance said.
Education and health services, the largest employment sector in Massachusetts – as it is in Rhode Island – saw a small decrease in the Bay State in August; in the last year, it has added 4,400 jobs, a proportionally smaller increase than in Rhode Island. Both employment services and leisure and hospitality have added many more jobs in the Bay State since August 2004: 9,900 and 7,700, respectively.
Massachusetts also continues to see a drop in manufacturing jobs, though at a slower pace than Rhode Island: down 500 in the last year, with a loss of 2,000 jobs in nondurable goods and a gain of 1,500 jobs in durable goods. Since July 2000, 95,900 manufacturing jobs have been cut.
Complete Rhode Island figures are at www.dlt.ri.gov. Massachusetts figures are at www.detma.org.
