WPRO News and the Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Rhode Island’s unemployment rate continues to fall, dropping to 5.8 percent in July, the lowest since October 2007.
The state Department of Labor and Training said Thursday the unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point from June, and 1.8 percentage points from July 2014.
Rhode Island had one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation for years, including nearly four years of double-digit unemployment from 2009 to 2012. It has slowly recovered, though it’s still higher than the U.S. unemployment rate of 5.3 percent in July.
Labor officials say the state added 3,300 jobs between June and July. The number of unemployed residents fell 800, to 32,200 from June.
The state says 15,100 more residents were employed last month than in July 2014.
