Down Again

Earlier this week, URI economist Len Lardaro noted the reversal of his economic index's positive trends for Rhode Island:

A slump in October in two key indicators that make up an index that forecasts the Rhode Island economy may signal that the state could be in for a double-dip recession, according to Leonard Lardaro, the University of Rhode Island professor who compiles the Current Conditions Index.

Today, we learn that the professor's index isn't the only discouraging statistic:

After eight consecutive, incremental drops in Rhode Island's unemployment rate, the November rate increased slightly to 11.6 percent, indicating the state's economy is staggering to year's end. ...

Unemployment rate: Up to 11.6 percent from 11.4 percent, the first increase from one month to the next since last December.

The silver lining is that the increase in the unemployment rate appears to have been attributable to the fact that 800 people reentered the job market. Of course, the problem, there, is that the number of employed Rhode Islanders remained the same, and the number of jobs based in Rhode Island decreased by 1,200.

Rhode Island is not at all well positioned to emerge from the Great Recession, and those leading the state are not well suited — intellectually or ideologically — to change our course.