Projo Biz Blog

Rhode Island manufacturing workers in August earned on average $13.95 an hour, down 53 cents from July and up four cents from August 2008, according to data released Friday by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.

Employees in that sector worked an average of 37.5 hours per week in August, up an hour and three-tenths from July and down seven-tenths of an hour from the same month a year ago.

Economists said that as Rhode Island recovers from a deep recession, employers may start bumping up hours worked per employee before hiring new staff. The jobless rate in Rhode Island in August was 12.8 percent, up from 12.7 in July with 73,300 people out of work.

In August, manufacturing slipped to Rhode Island's sixth-largest job sector, from the fifth largest in July. There were 42,700 manufacturing jobs in August, down 5,100 from a year ago. The top five sectors and the total jobs in August were: health care and social assistance, 76,100; government, 61,200; professional and business services, 52,200, retail trade, 46,900 and accommodation and food services, 43,000.

 Tags  manufacturing Rhode Island

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