Blog.WBRU

Rhode Island’s unemployment rate in October reached 9.3 percent, the worst the state has seen for that period in a quarter century.

Soaring above the national unemployment rate of 6.5 percent, Rhode Island has lost around 2,400 jobs from September to October. An estimated 1,000 government employees lost their jobs, along with 600 workers in professional and business services. The manufacturing and retail trade sectors lost about 500 jobs each.

According to Bryant University economist Edinaldo Tebaldi, Rhode Island’s unemployment could top 10 percent before a recovery gets underway in 2011.

-Dustin Sposato

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.