The buzz around Rhode Island’s finally breaking its trend of annual population declines is humming through the local media.  I’ll be on Channel 10’s evening news discussing it with Bill Rappleye.

Over on the site of the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, I’ve taken a look at the nationwide comparison and put Rhode Island’s results in the context of other key economic data, like the unemployment rate.  The upshot is that Rhode Island’s still on the bad side of the ranking.

When that result is combined with the fact that our labor force is shrinking, a small growth in population means an even larger number of people who are in the state but not even looking for work.  And when our small population growth is compared with Nevada’s much more robust growth, being tied for last place in unemployment clearly means something different for the two states.