Metro-area unemployment rate drops to 7.1% in June

THE PROVIDENCE-FALL RIVER-WARWICK unemployment rate fell in June to 7.1 percent, compared with the New Bedford rate of 8.2 percent and a national rate of 6.3 percent. / COURTESY U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
THE PROVIDENCE-FALL RIVER-WARWICK unemployment rate fell in June to 7.1 percent, compared with the New Bedford rate of 8.2 percent and a national rate of 6.3 percent. / COURTESY U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

PROVIDENCE – The Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro area unemployment rate dropped in June to 7.1 percent nonseasonally adjusted, nine-tenths of a percentage point lower than the 8 percent reported a month earlier, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday.

On a year-over-year basis, the metro area’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell 2.2 percentage points in June from 9.3 percent in June 2013. The Providence-Fall River-Warwick labor force rose slightly to 696,400 in June compared with 696,000 during the same month last year, and also rose month-over-month from 688,900 in May, the BLS said.

Nationally, 359 of the 372 metro areas across the United States reported unemployment rates in June that were lower than in June 2013, with the lowest coming in at 2.6 percent in Bismarck, N.D. Ten metro areas had jobless rates higher than a year ago, while three regions saw no change in their unemployment rates.

The highest unemployment rate for June was recorded in Yuma, Ariz., at 26.9 percent.

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Regionally, the New Bedford metropolitan area reported one of the most significant jobless rate declines year over year, dropping 3 percentage points. Only Decatur, Ill., which dropped 3.3 percentage points, and Rocky Mount, N.C., which dropped 3.2 percentage points, saw more dramatic declines.

The June unemployment rate in New Bedford was 8.2 percent, compared with 11.2 percent in June 2013 and 7.6 percent in May. The New Bedford labor force grew by 1,400 between May and June, but shrank by 600 from a year earlier.

In Worcester, the June unemployment rate of 6.1 percent represented an increase from 5.7 percent a month earlier but a decline from 8.1 percent in June 2013. The Norwich-New London, Conn., metro area reported a nonseasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 6.6 percent in June, dropping from 7.2 percent reported in May and from 8.2 percent in June 2013.

The national nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate for June was 6.3 percent.

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