Providence metro jobless rate drops to 10.4%

THE Providence-Fall River-Warwick metropolitan area unemployment rate declined in June to 10.4 percent. /
THE Providence-Fall River-Warwick metropolitan area unemployment rate declined in June to 10.4 percent. /

BOSTON – The unemployment rate in the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metropolitan area declined in June to 10.4 percent of the labor force from 11.3 percent in the same month a year earlier.
According to nonseasonally adjusted data released on Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of unemployed workers in the area dropped to 703,000 in June from 714,700 a year earlier.
The Providence metropolitan area’s jobless rate declined by 0.7 percentage point in June when compared to May.
Providence, at 10.4 percent, was slightly higher than Rhode Island’s rate, at 10.3 percent, and the national unemployment rate, at 9.3 percent, in June.
For Massachusetts’ New Bedford metropolitan area, the unemployment rate declined to 10.9 percent in June, down from 11.6 percent a year earlier but up from 10.5 percent a month earlier. The Bay State had an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent.
Nationwide, unemployment rates were lower in April in 224 of the 372 metropolitan areas when compared with a year earlier. It was higher in 127 areas and unchanged in 21 areas.
Twelve areas recorded jobless rates of at least 15 percent while 9 areas registered rates of less than 5 percent, the BLS said.
El Centro, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., continued to have the highest unemployment rates, at 28.5 percent and 26.9 percent, respectively.

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