Jobs & Opportunity Index (JOI), February 2019
Employment and Jobs Turn Down
Providence, RI – The only changes in the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s Jobs & Opportunity Index (JOI) report for February came from the employment and jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and the results weren’t good.
Three of the 12 data points of the index changed for this iteration. Employment, labor force, and RI-based jobs, which all dropped significantly.
“Rhode Islanders don’t have to guess, anymore ,” said the Center’s research director, Justin Katz. “The employment situation in Rhode Island is getting worse, bucking the national trend . Before things deteriorate much more, we must demand change from our elected representatives, who tend to pile on problems year after year instead of helping.”
As Katz pointed out in a related post on the Center’s news and commentary site, the Ocean State Current, the downturn conspicuously began the month that a progressive paid-time-off mandate went into effect last summer.
Additional charts and details of each of JOI’s three sub-factors can be viewed here.
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The nonpartisan Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity is Rhode Island’s premiere pro-family, pro-growth research and advocacy organization. The nonprofit Center is funded entirely by private tax-deductible donations and never accepts public funding.
The mission of the 501-C-3 organization is to return government to the people by opposing special-interest politics and advancing proven market-based solutions that can transform lives by restoring economic competitiveness, increasing educational opportunities, and protecting individual freedoms.