PROVIDENCE, R.I. — New England’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in January, at its lowest level in two years.
The New England office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the regional jobless rate was 7.2 percent, the same as in December and nine-tenths of a percentage point lower than a year ago.
Rhode Island was the only state in New England that had an unemployment rate higher than the national average in January. It was 10.9 percent that month, and ticked back up to 11 percent in February.
The average jobless rate in New England in 2011 was 7.7 percent, while Rhode Island’s rate was 11.3 percent.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee has called the state rate unacceptable.
Gotta love how the BDN and the AP want to spin this as a good thing. Tell that to the people without jobs. Tell that to the people that worked at places like MMA
Crappy job market the least crappiest it’s been in two years.
Because people have now exhausted their unemployement insurance benefits, (if they received any at all), they no longer appear in the statistics as “unemployed.”