May Jobs Report: Raimondo Touts Steady Progress on Jobs
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“It hasn’t always been easy, but we’ve taken big steps over the last three and half years to strengthen our economy and get Rhode Islanders back to work. We continue to make steady progress because of the tough choices we’ve made to end the freeze on school construction, fix our roads and bridges and get Rhode Islanders the training and education they need to compete for good jobs companies are creating in Rhode Island.
“There are more jobs in Rhode Island right now than ever before, and we’ve created 2,600 construction jobs in the last three and half years. Our approach is working and we need to stay focused to ensure that every Rhode Islander is included.”
The BLS report shows that Rhode Island set another jobs record, and for the first time ever, there are more than half a million (500,300) jobs in Rhode Island. Rhode Island added 1,200 jobs in May and 7,500 over the last 12 months.
The construction industry added 600 new jobs last month. Since taking office, Governor Raimondo has made the first, meaningful, long-term investment to fix Rhode Island’s roads and bridges, and she’s pushing for a once-in-a-generation investment in school construction. Because of these investments and the Governor’s other efforts to revamp Rhode Island’s approach to job training and economic development, Rhode Island has created 2,600 construction jobs since the start of 2015. In all, Rhode Island’s added 17,500 jobs since the Governor took office, and the unemployment rate has been cut by one-third.