R.I. economy continues to grow, but not everything is so rosy

A briefing from the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council think tank and Bryant University’s Center for Global and Regional Economic Studies show the state lags behind its New England neighbors

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, left, speaks with workers, and Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee., right, on Dec. 2, 2021, while visiting an under construction fabrication and assembly facility for offshore wind turbines at the Port of Providence, in Providence, R.I. Construction is one of the few sectors to recover all of the jobs they lost during the pandemic in Rhode Island.Jennifer McDermott/Associated Press

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s economy is continuing to grow, but still hasn’t regained the jobs it lost at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and is lagging the rest of New England in some important measures, according to a briefing released Thursday.

The Key Performance Indicators is a quarterly report by the nonprofit Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council think tank and Bryant University’s Center for Global and Regional Economic Studies. This one showed a mixed bag.

“I think that there’s a lot to be optimistic about,” Justine Oliva, RIPEC’s manager of research, said in an interview. “I think there’s a lot of good data, but it’s just a little bit more complicated than saying ‘Hurray, we’re fully on an upswing, everything is rosy.’”

According to the report, Rhode Island’s unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2022 was 3.9 percent, compared to 4.3 percent in New England and 3.8 percent nationally.

But it has regained the jobs it lost at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic more slowly than New England or the rest of the nation, falling 15,500 jobs short of pre-pandemic numbers. That means it’s regained 82.5 percent of the jobs it lost when the COVID-19 pandemic started, a slower rate than the region, 83.7 percent, and the nation, 91.8 percent.

Of major industry sectors, construction and professional and business services are the only ones to recover all of the jobs they lost during the pandemic in Rhode Island. In the first quarter of 2022, construction grew by 2.9 percent, outpacing New England and the nation. Information services – a much smaller sector – dropped by 1.7 percent. The hard-hit leisure and hospitality sector grew by only 1.1 percent, compared to 2.6 percent in New England and 3.1 percent in the country.

Employment growth in the first quarter was 0.9 percent, compared to 1 percent in New England and 1.2 percent nationally.

The GDP, a measure of the overall economy, grew for the third consecutive quarter, but at a slower pace than the region or nation: 5.3 percent, compared to 7.6 percent in New England and 6.9 percent nationally.

The labor force participation rate fell slightly from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022, to 63.2 percent. That’s slightly higher than the U.S. rate but lower than New England, and mirrors national trends not seen since the early 1980s.

“It’s somewhat challenging that we’re not recovering jobs at the same rate as the U.S. and New England,” Oliva said, “and we should be focused on growing our economy and reaching those regional and national benchmarks.”