{"id":112053,"date":"2026-11-10T14:53:48","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=112053"},"modified":"2026-11-10T14:53:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:53:49","slug":"r-i-s-economy-is-gaining-strength-says-uri-economist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/11\/r-i-s-economy-is-gaining-strength-says-uri-economist\/","title":{"rendered":"R.I.\u2019s economy is gaining strength, says URI economist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nov. 10, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT:<\/strong> September was a breakout month for Rhode Island\u2019s economy, with its performance exceeding what its aggregate numbers have indicated for several months, according to University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro, citing significant, sustained strength in the goods-producing sector. September\u2019s Current Conditions Index value of 58 marks the sixth time in the last seven months that a monthly CCI showed at least 50, which is a neutral value, or better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

September\u2019s CCI also ties the high mark for the 2026 calendar year set in June. This calendar year has seen twice as many monthly CCI values at 50 or higher than all of 2025. Additionally, eight of the CCI\u2019s 12 economic indicators improved in August relative to a year ago. Lardaro says the state\u2019s economy appears to have begun a period of sustained improvement, transitioning from a mild recession into the early stages of recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lardaro reiterated from last month that while pockets of weakness still exist, strengths in key areas, such as housing, manufacturing, decreasing layoffs and retail\u2014all of which are cyclical\u2014provide further evidence that Rhode Island is in the early stages of emerging from its recent shallow recession. Hopefully, the breadth of this recovery will continue in the coming months, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retail Sales, a critical economic indicator that has been a strength through the post-pandemic period, grew by 7.1% in September. Total Manufacturing Hours continued its growth, increasing by 3.6%. Manufacturing Wage also rose in September by 3.4% after dropping in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Single-Unit Permits, related to new home construction, saw another increase, rising by 23.7%. New Claims, related to layoffs, decreased by 18.8% in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefits Exhaustions, which indicates long-term unemployment, regained its positive momentum by dropping 31.2%. The Unemployment Rate dropped by 0.7% in September; however, Lardaro says data revisions in February are needed to see a more accurate picture on the true rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employment Service Jobs, a leading labor market indicator, fell by 0.7% in September. U.S. Consumer Sentiment continued its consistent monthly declines, dropping by 12.5%, Lardaro says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government Employment also fell by 1.2%, attributed to declines in federal government employment, Lardaro says. Private Service-Producing Employment, a proxy for service-sector employment, also dropped by 0.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HOW:<\/strong> Use attached information, including summary and charts prepared by Lardaro for news reports. He is available for broadcast and print interviews. Lardaro will be blogging about the new labor data during the coming weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHEN: Nov. 10, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOR INFORMATION:<\/strong> Leonard Lardaro, office, 401-874-4128, home, 401-783-9563; James Bessette, URI Department of Communications and Marketing, 401-874-3520, james.bessette@uri.edu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BACKGROUND:<\/strong> The Current Conditions Index, created by Lardaro, measures the strength of the present economic climate in Rhode Island by following the behavior of 12 indicators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nov. 10, 2026 WHAT: September was a breakout month for Rhode Island\u2019s economy, with its performance exceeding what its aggregate numbers have indicated for several months, according to University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro, citing significant, sustained strength in the goods-producing sector. September\u2019s Current Conditions Index value of 58 marks the sixth time in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,1905],"class_list":["post-112053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112054,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112053\/revisions\/112054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}