It seems kind of ironic that Rhode Island saw an increase in employment but at the same time saw quite a bit of job loss in September. The total unemployment rate in Rhode Island is at about 10.5% and this was for the total month of September. While it has not decreased by much, it still has decreased by a little which is a great sign.

However, the total number of residents who are unemployed in Rhode Island is around 501,500. That is a huge number and it dropped by almost 9,000 in the past year. There is a mystery behind these numbers because people are losing jobs but the unemployment percentage is dropping.

“The RI labor force totaled 560,400 in September 2011, down 1,000 from August and down 16,300 from September 2010 estimates. The over-the-month decrease in the number of unemployed residents, combined with the decrease in the number of employed residents, caused the September labor force to drop to its lowest level since May 2005.”

It is now almost November and things have continued to fluctuate. October also showed a decrease in jobs for the residents of Rhode Island. Although September and October showed a crazy number of job losses, there still seems to be an increase in about 3,000 jobs since the beginning of 2011. That is a large amount of jobs being brought into RI for such a small state.

Where did employment fall?

“Educational Services, Other Services and Government all experienced sizeable employment declines over the month. The Educational Services sector lost 1,200 jobs due, in part, to employment drops at private colleges and schools.” Educational sectors are not the only places seeing job losses but so are other sectors. Those “other sectors” have seen an astonishingly high decrease of almost 800 jobs. Automobile and government jobs are being hard hit with the total job loss in Rhode Island.

Where did employment increase?

The food sector saw a large increase in jobs because seasons are changing. Several other places that saw job increases were in the communication and trade departments. Would you be surprised to know that retail jobs increased by over one thousand? Business services also added over four hundred jobs to the overall employment increase in Rhode Island.

The state is excited to see in an increase in some jobs but saddened to see such a loss in other sectors. However, until the economy balances out, RI could take a while to balance out its unemployment and employment ratios.

This past year has been a rollercoaster for Rhode Island but the state will continue to push forward to produce more jobs. Most states have been hit hard by the economy and Rhode Island is just a small piece of the big economic puzzle.