Jobless rate falls in Providence metro area in April

THE NON-SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT RATE for the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metropolitan area fell to 9 percent year over year in April, as the jobless rate in New Bedford rose to 10.1 percent. / COURTESY U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
THE NON-SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT RATE for the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metropolitan area fell to 9 percent year over year in April, as the jobless rate in New Bedford rose to 10.1 percent. / COURTESY U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

WASHINGTON – Unemployment rates fell year over year in April in 276 of the United States’ 372 metropolitan areas, including the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro; rose in 78 of the nation’s metropolitan areas, including the New Bedford metro; and was unchanged in 18 areas, according to the latest non-seasonally adjusted data released Wednesday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Providence metro area’s jobless rate fell to 9 percent from 10.2 percent in April 2012, according to preliminary figures from the BLS, as 61,800 people who were looking for work could not find a job.
For the same year-over-year period, Rhode Island’s jobless rate fell to 8.7 percent from 10.4 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (The seasonally adjusted rate for the state, released previously by the state Department of Labor and Training, was 8.8 percent.)
The New Bedford metro area’s unemployment rate was one of the 78 to increase year over year in April, to a non-seasonally adjusted rate of 10.1 percent.
The Bay State saw its non-seasonally adjusted rate stagnate, as it was 6.3 percent in both April 2012 and April 2013.
The non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate for the nation in April was 7.1 percent, a decline from the 7.7 percentage rate reported a year earlier.
The Providence and New Bedford metro areas were among the 274 of the nation’s 372 that had increases in non-farm employment, according to the government.
Providence-Fall River-Warwick saw the number of workers grow 0.6 percent, or 3,200, to 551,300 in March. New Bedford’s gain was 2.1 percent, or 2,100, to 67,800 employed in the region.

No posts to display