Rhode Island's unemployment rate dropped from second highest to third highest in the nation — a hollow victory for the country's smallest state, which still had the highest number of jobless workers in its history, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
Though the Northeast claimed the lowest unemployment of any region, 12.8 percent of Rhode Islanders were without work in August — a 4.5 percentage point increase from the year before that equates to a loss of about 19,000 jobs.
The nationwide unemployment rate was 9.7 percent.
Michigan and Nevada were the worst off, with unemployment rates of 15.2 and 13.2 percent respectively. California and Oregon rounded out the top five, both with rates of 12.2 percent.
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