Construction jobs are among those most troubled by the current economic recession. Keeping with that trend, Rhode Island construction jobs during February continued to see the biggest over the year decrease in jobs.

Rhode Island's construction industry employed 17,900 workers during February, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 18,600 workers during January and a 16 percent decrease from last year.

The state's construction industry has suffered over-the-year job losses every month for the past six months, by 5.5 percent during September 2008, by 7.8 percent during October 2008, by 8.8 percent during November 2008, by 11.7 percent during December 2008, by 12.7 percent during January and by 16 percent during February.

Other industries in the state that saw an over-the-year jobs decrease during February were:

• manufacturing by 9.8 percent
• trade, transportation and utilities by 5.7 percent
• information by 5.5 percent
• financial activities by 4.4 percent
• professional and business services by 6.1 percent
• leisure and hospitality by 1.7 percent
• government by 2.2 percent

The only industry that saw an over-the-year jobs increase during February was education and health services, which employed 100,500 workers, up from 99,900 workers during January and a .5 percent increase from last year. The mining and logging industry employed 200 workers, the same as during January and last year.

Overall, Rhode Island's unemployment rate increased from 10.3 percent to 10.5 percent during February. The state had a total non-farm employment of 467,300 workers, down from 469,600 workers during January and a 4.2 percent decrease from last year.

Labels: Rhode Island construction jobs