“The Rhode Island economy is a laggard” is an old and
depressing story but NFIB focuses on the issue because it helps drive our
legislative agenda of lowering the costs of doing business. Lower costs (taxes,
regulatory burden) and risks are the only ways to jumpstart the economy and the
desperately needed job creation.
The most recent statistics show that Rhode Island has
recovered only 22,000 of the 39,800 jobs lost in the Great Recession (55%). The
state lags behind its neighbors in New England in the rate of job recovery. And
while the state no longer has the highest unemployment rate in the nation –
currently the third highest –Rhode Island’s unemployment rate has been higher
than the national average for nine years!
