RI unemployment rate dips to 12.9 percent
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Business Talk: Nov. 20, 2009
Sandra Powell of the RI Department of Labor and Training talks about the state's new unemployment numbers.
Published: November 20, 2009
Updated: November 20, 2009
PROVIDENCE—The unemployment rate in Rhode Island has fallen for the first time in nearly three years, dropping slightly to 12.9 percent in October.
The state Department of Labor and Training said on Friday that the state lost 1,100 jobs last month even as the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of one percentage point, from 13 percent. It is the first monthly drop since January 2007.
Spokeswoman Laura Hart says officials are cautiously hopeful the economy is stabilizing.
But the fact that the state is still losing jobs may indicate that some people have stopped looking for work. The data only take into account people actively seeking a job.
Rhode Island had the third worst unemployment rate in the country in October, behind Michigan and Nevada.
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Reader Reactions
I would not feel so thrilled and secure about the drop. This probably is only because of the numbers who have surpassed the weeks of collection and are no longer counted. That does not mean that they have gotten jobs.
We should start to count the homeless who used to be middle class.
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