PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island Department of Labor said on Thursday that September saw the highest monthly job gains in 2024 while the unemployment rate stayed the same from the previous month after it rose for four consecutive months through August.
Employers added 3,300 jobs last month and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.6 percent on a monthly basis but was up more than a percentage point from the same time last year, the labor department said in a release. Last month’s 300 jobs gain was revised upwards to 1,100.
The accommodation and food services sector led the month in hiring as it created more than a thousand new jobs. It was followed by the government which recruited 700 people and the retail sector added 500 new workers ahead of the holiday season.
Rhode Island’s unemployment rate had been ticking up over the last few months in what experts have said was partly due to the increase in the number of people entering the labor market. The September rate is a half a percentage point above the national rate which stood at a little over 4 percent last month. The Ocean State also trailed some of its other New England neighbors. In August, Massachusetts reported their jobless rate at 3.7 percent, nearly a percentage point lower than Rhode Island. Connecticut’s August unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent, according to the state’s labor department.
Unemployed Rhode Islanders ticked down by 100 to a little over 27,000 though was up 9,000 compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, residents in the state who are working fell slightly by 300 to about 564,000 but was 7,200 higher than in September 2023. The labor force participation rate, which tracks the number of people who are actively looking for work, declined for the month but was 1.4 percentage higher than a year ago.
“In the past two months, the Rhode Island economy has regained 4,400 of the 5,200 jobs lost between April and July,” Rhode Island’s Labor Department and Training said on Thursday in a statement.
Omar Mohammed can be reached at omar.mohammed@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter (X) @shurufu.
