October 30, 2009
A Black Spot in the Northeast
Rhode Island's saving grace, on this sort of graphic showing state-by-state unemployment rates, is that the folks creating the images continue to use "higher than 10%" as the top category. So, a baker's dozen of other states have joined us in that group, but conspicuously, none of them are north of the Carolinas or east of Ohio. We're a little black dot in a sea of purples and maroons.
Imagine what would happen if we made a concerted effort to shed our business unfriendly image... instead of continuing to elect legislators who are apparently intent on pushing us in the other direction.
Just a note on these things. When I was in school, so called "frictional unemploynent" was 3%. That includes people who are between known jobs, sick, or otherwise not employed for their own reasons. This figure was regarded as a constant. I don't know if that figure has changed, but I notice that no state is below 3% unemployment.
Posted by: Warrington Faust at October 30, 2009 11:43 AMWarrington Faust,
Once states start to recover from recession you’ll start to see the unemployment number rates come down. We were at a high of 7.8% and had 2 months of lower numbers down to 6.8% but we just shot back up to 7.4% this last month.
A very good indicator things are on the mends is that our hotel bookings are up and airline flights are booked out to April 2010. People are beginning to spend again.
A $36 million over 8,000 sq ft 3-bedroom newly constructed house is up for sale and there are 3 interested buyers negotiating with the contractor as reported on TV last night.
According to US bureau of Labor statistics average unemployment rate for year 2007 in the following states:
Utah………..……2.7%
Hawaii………..2.6%
For year 2006 in the following states:
Utah………..……2.9%
Hawaii………..2.4%
For year 2005 in the following states:
North Dakota…….3.4%
Hawaii………………...2.8%
Typically the following states have had continuous unemployment average yearly rates at 3% or lower; Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.