Rhode Island’s economy experienced positive results across most key economic indicators in the second quarter of 2024, according to the Rhode Island Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Briefing, released today.
Prepared by The Center for Global and Regional Economic Studies at Bryant University and the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC), the Briefing shows that the Ocean State experienced particularly strong growth in its labor force participation rate, which essentially measures the proportion of adults who are working or actively looking for work. Rhode Island’s labor force participation rate expanded for the fifth straight quarter in Q2 2024 and is now at 64.9 percent.
The number of employed Rhode Islanders notably increased in Q2 by 4,900 (0.9 percent), reaching 563,400, but the number of Rhode Island-based jobs (nonfarm employment) was unchanged at 512,300. With the jump in labor force participation rate, Rhode Island’s unemployment rate also increased in Q2 2024 to 4.2 percent, the fourth straight quarter of increase after reaching a historically low level of 2.6 percent in Q2 2023.
“The second quarter data indicate that Rhode Island’s economy is largely moving in a positive direction,” said Michael DiBiase, President and CEO of RIPEC. “The increase in Rhode Island’s labor force participation rate is particularly noteworthy; not only did Rhode Island experience strong quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth in this metric, but the Ocean State now has a higher labor force participation rate than New England, as well as the U.S., and unlike the region and nation, has exceeded pre-pandemic labor force participation levels. While there was impressive growth in the number of Rhode Islanders working, that increase was the result of an increase in out-of-state jobs. At the same time, Rhode Island’s unemployment rate, while still historically low, is higher than the U.S. and substantially higher than New England,” he added.
Eight major industries in Rhode Island experienced employment increases in Q2 2024, while one, leisure and hospitality, shed 1,900 jobs (3.1 percent decrease). Education and health services—Rhode Island’s largest industry sector—saw the largest nominal jobs gains among industry sectors, adding 800 jobs (0.7 percent increase).
Preliminary figures for net sales tax receipts, an indicator of aggregate demand, increased 0.4 percent (seasonally adjusted) in Q2 2024. Year-over-year net sales tax receipts increased 4.4 percent.
Historically, Rhode Island GDP growth has lagged the nation and region. However, for the second straight quarter Rhode Island GDP increased in Q1 2024 at a faster rate (3.0 percent, annualized), than both the U.S. and New England (1.4 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively). GDP data from Q2 2024 are not yet available.
The Briefing is available here. The data set used to create the Briefing is available here. Past editions of the Briefing can be found here.
