The employment figures for Rhode Island are on a downswing, although a shrinking labor force keeps the unemployment rate steady or “improving.” Meanwhile, a likely revision in January may darken the picture further.
Month-to-month trends of SNAP beneficiaries in Rhode Island and across the country show another way that Rhode Island is unique and reinforces a theory of decline that seems to fit every picture in the Ocean State.
A new Web site and open-government application in Tiverton kick off the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s project to provide Rhode Islanders with a nation-leading level of transparency in local government.
Rhode Island’s statistical employment surge came to a screeching halt in July, but not before putting the Ocean State in company with the Deep South. (Of course, the numbers still look likely to be revised downward dramatically in January.)
Whatever is generating the strange statistics in the labor market, a shift toward part-time work doesn’t appear to provide a satisfactory explanation.
NAEP scores and comparisons of trends across the country suggest that the stall of education reform during the Chafee era has not been good for Rhode Island’s children.
Based on the numbers, Rhode Island’s employment woes appear to be coming to an end. The numbers feel wrong, though, and some experts’ explanation doesn’t seem to fit.
… In response to an inquiry from Ocean State Current-Anchor Rising, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services sent over several documents. One of those listed all of the documents that an applicant for social services can submit to verify citizenship qualification for those benefits.
Employment results were positive, in Rhode Island in May. The Ocean State still lags the country, though, and it’s getting more and more difficult to believe that the government’s numbers are accurate.
Tax Foundation rankings and RI-STAMP projections show that the RI House’s budget might game some rankings a little, but legislators still aren’t willing to make substantive changes to improve the lives of workaday Rhode Islanders.
The search for external evidence of Rhode Island’s supposed employment boom continues, and continues to come up empty.
Rhode Island (with the rest of the states) is apparently experiencing an employment boom, although the evidence is difficult to see outside of the statistics.
Superior Court Judge Brian Stern’s order liquidating the Central Coventry Fire District describes the crisis the district is in very succinctly…
The yearly operating expenses of the fire district were far in excess of the amount of funds that was being generated by taxes and other fees. The board had created what can only be described as an elaborate Ponzi scheme to hide this from the taxpayers, which resulted in a multimillion dollar structural deficit. A twenty, thirty, or even a fifty percent increase in taxes would not even resolve the entire structural deficit the board had created at the time.Full detail on how the district got into this position, is in the main post.
Pulled from most context, Rhode Island’s February employment picture looks great. With a little bit of context, though, it’s difficult to remain upbeat.
Rhode Island employment is now dead last in the nation by the three markers that the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity used two years ago, and the gap between employment and jobs is at (at least) a seven-year low.
Rhode Island’s revised employment picture for 2013 is now one of decline, and Rhode Islanders have to stop allowing that to be acceptable.
Rhode Island’s December 2013 results paint a bleak picture, and Rhode Islanders shouldn’t buy into the spin that it represented a blip in a general improvement.
The enrollment picture for HealthSource RI brightened a little as the deadline for January coverage approached, but if anything, the long-term picture for the health care reform darkened.
Rhode Island’s unemployment rate may have dropped, but it’s now tied for worst in the country, and the percentage of people who are working for somebody else (rather than themselves) continues to climb.
Federal grants have already paid large subsidies for applicants using HealthSource RI, but only for a small number of them is that the full taxpayer burden.
Rhode Island’s employment results for September and October show a state that has lost any recovery that it had and is slipping in isolation from its neighboring states.
As you’ve probably heard, home childcare providers have voted overwhelmingly to unionize.
Rhode Island’s economy is continuing to slip, with the state leading the country in employment decrease from July to August.
Preliminary employment data for August suggests that Rhode Island really has moved the needle… just the wrong way.
Rhode Island’s unemployment rate held steady from June to July, but the underlying employment numbers show a dramatic drop. Coming the month after the General Assembly’s session, the question becomes: was this the needle move they were talking about?
Rhode Island’s employment picture has not improved, and more-nuanced ways of assessing the numbers don’t leave much room for optimism. The dark silver lining is that its plight looks less terrible as other states lose their own ground.
Rhode Island’s employment picture is still stagnation, but with plenty of evidence that the state could slingshot back to life if it would stop holding itself down.
A couple of Saturdays ago, I was interested and a little startled to hear WPRO’s John Loughlin state that, operating budget-wise, Rhode Island has one of the most expensive state legislatures.
The most significant change on the employment-data front might be confidence in the numbers, not just in terms of their raw validity, but in terms of increasing understanding that a falling unemployment rate isn’t necessarily a marker of economic health.
Charting the fifty states’ distance from their peak employment along with the party controlling the legislature shows some interesting results, not the least of which is the ability of other states to change their courses.