Unemployment rate drops in Providence metro

THE PROVIDENCE-Fall River-Warwick metro area fared slightly better than Rhode Island, as its jobless rate dropped to 10.4 percent in August. / COURTESY THE U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
THE PROVIDENCE-Fall River-Warwick metro area fared slightly better than Rhode Island, as its jobless rate dropped to 10.4 percent in August. / COURTESY THE U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

WASHINGTON – Unemployment rates were lower in August in 325 of the nation’s 372 metropolitan areas, including the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro area, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The unemployment rate dropped to 10.4 percent in the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro during August. Year over year, the metro area’s unemployment rate dropped 0.8 percentage points from 11.2 percent in August 2011.
The Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro area was slightly better off than the state of Rhode Island, which posted a 10.6 percent unemployment rate during August.
The New Bedford metro area’s jobless rate dropped 0.5 percentage points year over year to 9.9 percent in August. Massachusetts as a whole saw its unemployment rate drop from 7.2 percent in August 2011 to 6.4 percent in August 2012.
The national unemployment rate dropped from 9.1 percent in August 2011 to 8.2 percent in August 2012, not seasonally adjusted.
Two hundred seventy-four metropolitan areas reported over-the-year increases in nonfarm payroll employment, 92 reported decreases and six, including the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro area, had no change.

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