Rhode Island’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in January, holding steady at December’s revised 12.7 percent, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training said Friday in its monthly jobs report.The state gained 800 jobs while the number of employed residents jumped by 2,000 in January, but those gains were offset by a larger number of unemployed Rhode Islanders, which rose in January to 73,300, up 500 from the revised December statistics, the DLT said.

By comparison, the national jobless rate was at 9.7 percent in January and February, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday. Payrolls fell another 36,000 last month after a revised 26,000 decrease in January.

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Good news for job seekers: according to the Examiner.com, the United States Census Bureau has created many available jobs in Rhode Island (click here).

The U.S. Census Bureau is hiring several recruiting assistants in Rhode Island. According to the Census Bureau, it is preferable that the applicant be bilingual in English and at least one of the following languages: Arabic, Khmer (Cambodian), Italian, Laotian, Portuguese/Creole, Russian or Spanish.

Recruiting assistants work in the field to promote census jobs to recruit new applicants, locate, set up and run applicant employment testing sessions, and review and send applicants’ materials to and from the local census office. Hours include days, evenings and weekends.

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In one fell swoop, seventy-four Rhode Island teaching jobs were eliminated after officials in the Central Falls school district decided to terminate all teachers at a high school.

The teachers are losing their jobs after talks between the school district and the teachers union collapsed. The jobs will be cut by the end of the year for Central Falls High School. However, no more than half those instructors would be hired back under a federal option that has enraged the state’s powerful teachers union.

Nineteen staff members were also fired, bringing the total to 93.

Teachers were demanding more pay for additional work, after the school district school district implemented changes that included more after hours tutoring for students. Teachers who weren’t happy with the changes were asking for more money.

The school board voted 5-2 in favor of the firings. The Central Falls school has been one of the lowest achieving schools in the state, the Providence Journal said.

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Starpoint Solutions, a staffing firm, is looking to hire 20 to 60 people for IT jobs in Rhode Island.

Starpoint Solutions is based in New York and is looking to hire up to 70 people in Rhode Island, with 20 to 60 being in the IT arena.

Five to 10 sales people and recruiters will also be hired in Providence.

As of December, Corporate Search Group, Inc. (CSG) became a part of Starpoint Solutions. Starpoint describes its business as a full-service staffing firm with a solid record of successful placements in the Finance, Accounting and Banking arena. 

According to the Starpoint Solutions site, the combination of CSG with Starpoint brings a “wider range of offerings to clients including application development; enterprise software services; and staffing solutions for Accounting and Finance, as well as IT, Administrative, Network & Infrastructure Technology, and Executive Management.”

Starpoint also has an office in Boston and wants to establish their business in Rhode Island as well.

Positions that will come available in Rhode Island in the coming months will be listed on the Starpoint website.

 The welcome news comes at a time when hiring in Rhode Island has been sluggish.

The State of Rhode Island is among those that are not seeing any relief from the current economic recession, with the state continuing to lose more jobs and Rhode Island unemployment continuing to increase.

During June, Rhode Island saw its unemployment rate increase from 12.1 percent to 12.4 percent, which is higher than the national unemployment rate at the time of 9.5 percent. The state has not seen its unemployment rate decrease since January 2007, when it went from 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent.

 More good news: the maximum amount of money that the State of Rhode Island allows people to collect in unemployment benefits each week is about to increase, according to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.

It was recently announced that the maximum amount for someone without dependents will increase by $18 per week, or 3.4 percent, from $528 to $546. The maximum amount for someone with five or more dependents will increase by $22 per week, or 3.3 percent, from $660 to $682.

The first state-coordinated plan to develop a green economy recommends creating an energy strategy for RI, thereby sparking the creation of a plethora of green jobs in Rhode Island.

According to ProJo.com, this will expand sources of funding for clean technology companies and setting up worker-training programs, in the hope that the new initiatives can contribute to an economic recovery.

“The green economy is a new opportunity for Rhode Island that can increase the number and diversity of jobs and raise wages,” the plan from the state Economic Development Corporation says. “Ultimately, advancing the green economy will require efforts with all kinds of companies: nurturing new, entrepreneurial efforts; helping existing companies grow and convert to green practices; and attracting existing or new ventures from outside the state.”

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Those with healthcare jobs in Rhode Island may be affected by the information released in a new report.

The Rhode Island Department of Health recently released The Health of Rhode Island’s Hospitals, a report that details the financial performance of the state’s 13 hospitals from 2005 to 2008. The report found that even though Rhode Island hospitals were more profitable than others in the Northeast in 2007, the financial performance of local hospitals declined during 2008.

Overall, hospitals in Rhode Island saw a 12 percent loss in net worth during 2008, which can mostly be attributed to losses in their investments as opposed to declines in patient revenue. In fact, patient revenue increased 6 percent from 2007 to 2008.

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More RI government jobs have been lost than government jobs in any other state.

A recent report from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government found that state and local government jobs in Rhode Island decreased by 3.5 percent from June 2008 to June of this year. This is the highest rate of government job loss in the entire country.

Nevada had the second-most cuts, eliminating 2.9 percent of state and local government jobs. Maine saw its government jobs decline by 2.2 percent, while Arizona and South Carolina both saw their government jobs decline 2.1 percent. These were the only states to cut more than 2 percent of public jobs.

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Several Rhode Island jobs will soon be saved as two state shipyards receive federal funding. Visit http://www.rijobs.com to learn more.

Two Rhode Island shipyards will receive $2.6 million in federal funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help create and preserve jobs for ship builders. Blount Boats, Inc. of Warren and Senesco Marine of North Kingstown were each awarded the money under the Small Shipyards Grant Program.

Blount Boats, Inc. will receive $868,186 and Senesco Marine will receive $1,792,347. The Small Shipyards Grant program, created under the ARRA, has so far provided $98 million in funding to more than 70 shipyards throughout the country.

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One large telecommunications company is planning to eliminate several tech jobs in Rhode Island.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union Local 2323, which represents Verizon Communications‘ Rhode Island employees, recently announced that the company plans to layoff all of its 291 splice-service technicians who have been hired in Rhode Island and Massachusetts since August 2003.

Verizon announced earlier this year that it planned to eliminate 8,000 jobs in the United States. Union leaders are saying they were told 72 Rhode Island employees would lose their jobs and 219 workers in Massachusetts would lose theirs.The company has reportedly declared 1,246 employees in the two states as “surplus,” with 567 of those being splice-service technicians.

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One company is helping to create more manufacturing jobs in Rhode Island.

CrimzonRose, a jewelry manufacturing company based in North Providence, recently announced that it plans to hire 60 workers for jobs in the state. The creation of the additional jobs are possible because CrimzonRose recently acquired Erica Lyons Inc., a company based in Florida.

According to an article by The Providence Journal, Susan Lyons, the creative force behind Erica Lyons Inc., and a staff of about 30 workers will remain in Florida, while the distribution and warehouse operation in the state will close down and those functions will be transferred to Rhode Island. Despite the added jobs in Rhode Island, the company’s purchase of Erica Lyons resulted in about 75 Florida employees losing their jobs.

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