WHAT: Rhode Island’s economy has been expanding for 15 consecutive months, with a noticeably improved pace of economic activity that began in August, says noted University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro. According to Lardaro, Rhode Island’s Current Conditions Index for September remained at 92 for the second month – up from 75 in July – with 11 of 12 key CCI indicators showing improvement. More impressive, says Lardaro, is the fact that many indicators over the past two months have improved relative to fairly difficult comps from a year ago. Total Manufacturing Hours and Manufacturing Wage were star performers, as were Benefits Exhaustions and New Claims for unemployment. However, according to Lardaro, the best news is that Employment Service Jobs – a leading labor market indicator that includes temporary workers – rose for a third time after six consecutive months of (annual) declines.

WHO: URI Professor of Economics Leonard Lardaro, creator and author of the Current Conditions Index.

WHEN: Nov. 14, 2022.

HOW: Use attached information, including summary and charts prepared by Lardaro for news reports. He is available for broadcast and print interviews. Lardaro will be blogging about the new labor data during the coming weeks. Additional information and historical data available online: http://www.llardaro.com/current.htm.

FOR INFORMATION: Leonard Lardaro, office, 401-874-4128, home, 401-783-9563.
Dawn Bergantino, URI Department of Communications and Marketing, 401-874-4147.

BACKGROUND: The Current Conditions Index, created by Lardaro, measures the strength of the present economic climate in Rhode Island by following the behavior of 12 indicators.