Rhode Island’s unemployment rate fell to 3.7% in the third quarter, its lowest level in nearly three years, but the improvement came from people leaving the workforce rather than from more Rhode Islanders finding jobs, according to a quarterly briefing released Wednesday.
The briefing comes from Bryant University’s Center for Global and Regional Economic Studies and the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, a business-backed research group.
Rhode Island’s rate fell from 4.3% in the second quarter and now sits below New England’s 4.2% and the national 4.1%. At the same time, the number of Rhode Island residents with jobs fell for a fifth consecutive quarter, down 500 to its lowest point in nearly five years…