August unemployment rates locally and statewide are mostly lower than in the previous month and a year earlier.
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Local jobless stats will not be available for another week or so.
Autauga County’s rate held steady at 5.1 percent, while Montgomery County saw a slight drop to 5.6 percent.
According to The Hamilton Project, an economic policy think tank at the Brookings Institution, the economy would need to add 204,000 jobs every month until May 2017 to reach pre-recession employment levels. The last time the number of unemployed persons was at or below 116,361 was May 2008, when the number measured 113,343.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Rhode Island’s unemployment rate rose to 5.6 percent in August, the highest it’s been since last October.
There was an increase of 7,300 non-farm jobs in the state from July to August, with the largest hikes occurring in administrative/support/waste services, mining/logging/construction and real estate/rental/leasing.
In August, 3.4 million MA residents were employed and 141,700 were unemployed, for a total labor force of 3.61 million. “Not only are we seeing more people becoming employed and seeing more jobs created, but we’re also seeing our work force expand as we have added 108,000 people to our work force since January”. “Over the year, 66 of 67 counties experienced a drop in their unemployment rates, some counties by more than two percentage points”.
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Bill Spriggs, the chief economist for the AFL-CIO, a national group of 56 unions that represents more than 12 million workers, noted gains in fast food jobs and in health care in a series of tweets. The private educational services sector remained flat in August, and was down by 1,000 from a year ago. Year-over-year, there was a gain of 1,200 jobs. Over the year, other services are up 800 (+0.6%) jobs. Since August 2015, construction jobs have decreased by 1,900 positions. Over the year, construction has gained 11,700 (+8.4%) jobs.
