Jobs & Opportunity Index (JOI), December 2019: Signs of Growth Foretell a Revision

The final report for 2019 of the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s Jobs & Opportunity Index (JOI) found Rhode Island still with its overall ranking of 47th in the country. Data for all 12 datapoints of the index except federal taxes were updated for this iteration, and the only negatives, compared with September, were a slight increase in marginally attached workers and a more-significant increase in state and local taxes.

Employment and labor force were up about 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively, since the first-reported numbers for September, and RI-based jobs increased 0.5%. With the national economy continuing to improve, Medicaid enrollment fell 3.2%, while TANF (cash welfare) rolls shrank by 24.0%. SNAP enrollment was down 0.3%. The Ocean State had 16.5% fewer residents who counted as long-term unemployed and 7.8% fewer who were working only part time because more work was not available. However, the number counting as marginally attached increased 2.1%.

When it comes to money, personal income was up a modest 0.3% on an annualized basis, which amounted to $161 million more income. However, state and local taxation increased 1.4%, or $50 million, resulting not only from the increased income, but also increases in taxation after recent legislative sessions.

The first chart shows RI remaining last in New England on JOI, at 47th. New Hampshire held the 1st spot, nationally. Maine improved its standing two spots, to 17th, while Vermont continued to slip, to 21st. Massachusetts moved up a step to 36th, and Connecticut advanced to 37th. The second chart shows the gaps between RI and New England and the United States on JOI, and the third chart shows the gaps in the official unemployment rate.

Results for the three underlying JOI factors were:

  • Job Outlook Factor (optimism that adequate work is available): RI advanced five spots, to 27th.
  • Freedom Factor (the level of work against reliance on welfare programs): RI remained 41st.
  • Prosperity Factor (the financial motivation of income versus taxes): RI remained 47th.

Click here for the corresponding employment post on the Ocean State Current.

Rhode Island still held its overall ranking of 47th in the country on the September 2019 third quater Jobs & Opportunity Index.

Jobs & Opportunity Index (JOI), September 2019: Hanging on While the Country Advances

As the third quarter of 2019 came to a close, Rhode Island still held its overall ranking of 47th in the country on the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s Jobs & Opportunity Index (JOI) but was basically tied with 48th place Louisiana. Data for all 12 datapoints of the index except federal taxes were updated for this iteration, and RI benefited by the fact that it was finally able to report data for SNAP (foodstamps), which it had not done for two-and-a-half years thanks to the UHIP debacle.

Compared with June, RI improved on most measures. Employment and labor force were up about 0.6% since the first-reported numbers for June, with RI-based jobs increasing a more-modest 0.3%. Correspondingly, Medicaid enrollment fell 0.8%, while TANF (cash welfare) rolls shrank by 8.0%. SNAP enrollment was down 4.0%, although that is from the number as reported ever since February 2017. The Ocean State had 2.3% fewer residents who counted as long-term unemployed and 3.8% fewer who were working only part time because more work was not available. However, the number counting as marginally attached increased 23.7%.

The picture is also mixed when it comes to money. Personal income was up 3.9% on an annualized basis, which amounted to $1.8 billion more income. However, state and local taxation increased 10.5%, or $349 million, resulting not only from the increased income, but also expansive changes to tax policy.

The first chart shows RI remaining last in New England on JOI, at 47th for September 2019. New Hampshire returned to 1st nationally. Vermont and Maine slipped, to 14th and 19th, respectively. Massachusetts remained 37th. However, Connecticut advanced to 38th.

Rhode Island still held its overall ranking of 47th in the country on the September 2019 third quater Jobs & Opportunity Index.

The second chart shows the gaps between RI and New England and the United States on JOI for September 2019, and the third chart shows the gaps in the official unemployment rate.

Rhode Island still held its overall ranking of 47th in the country on the September 2019 third quater Jobs & Opportunity Index.
Rhode Island still held its overall ranking of 47th in the country on the September 2019 third quater Jobs & Opportunity Index.

Results for the three underlying Jobs & Opportunity Index factors were:

  • Job Outlook Factor (optimism that adequate work is available): RI fell three spots, to 32nd.
  • Freedom Factor (the level of work against reliance on welfare programs): RI advanced two, to 41st.
  • Prosperity Factor (the financial motivation of income versus taxes): RI remained 47th.

Click here for the corresponding employment post on the Ocean State Current.

Jobs & Opportunity Index (JOI), February 2019: Employment and Jobs Turn Down

Given the short time between reports, only three of the 12 datapoints of the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s Jobs & Opportunity Index (JOI) have changed for February, but the changes are important. After a disappointing downward revision of Rhode Island’s employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) wiped away most of the employment progress Rhode Islanders had made in 2018, February showed an additional downturn. That downturn didn’t change the index ranking or the subrankings, so the Ocean State is still 47th in the country.

Employment was down another 570 people from the first-reported number for January, and the labor force dropped 951. An additional 1,400 jobs based within the state joined the 9,000 that disappeared the month before.

The first chart shows RI remaining last in New England on JOI. Although underlying scores moved, the three measures that changed did not cause any variation in rank from the month before across the country.

In New England, New Hampshire leads the region, in 3rd place, nationally. Vermont remained in 12th place, and Maine in 18th. Massachusetts is still 36th, and Connecticut stands at 42nd.

New England Jobs February 2019 Race To First Place

The second chart shows the gaps between RI and New England and the United States on JOI, both staying about the same. That was true of the third chart, also, which shows the gaps in the official unemployment rate.

United States Jobs February 2019 Scores
Unemployment Rate Rhode Island Jobs February 2019

Results for the three underlying JOI factors were:

  • Job Outlook Factor (optimism that adequate work is available): RI remained 24th.
  • Freedom Factor (the level of work against reliance on welfare programs): RI remained 42nd.
  • Prosperity Factor (the financial motivation of income versus taxes): RI remained 47th.

See here for the corresponding post focusing on employment from the Ocean State Current.

Do you see RI as providing opportunities for prosperity? Families are fleeing from our borders. The equivalent of 11 cities and towns wiped off map as people vote with their feet.

Eleven Towns Wiped Off Map as RI ranks 45th on 2017 Family Prosperity Index

Eleven Towns Could be Wiped Off Rhode Island’s Map As State Ranks 45th Nationally on Updated 2017 Family Prosperity Index

 

Crippling out-migration problem demands a new policy approach. Perhaps nothing is more telling about whether Americans see a state as providing sufficient opportunities for prosperity and a better quality of life than whether or not they are flocking to or fleeing from its borders. No other measure paints a more realistic picture of whether or not a particular state is an ideal place to raise a family or build a career than how people “vote with their feet.”

In this regard, Rhode Island is losing the state-to-state migration competition. Shockingly, since 2004, the State of Rhode Island has lost the equivalent population of 11 of its 39 cities and towns to out-migration. On net, over 80,000 more Rhode Island residents chose to leave our states than residents of other states chose to move here.

While America’s population grows, the Ocean State’s population remains stagnant because of such out-migration losses. Combined with the widely reported fact that the incomes of those coming to Rhode Island are lower than those leaving, Rhode Island’s overall tax base is on an ominous downward spiral. Some would call it a “death spiral.”

Out-migration losses are a contributing factor Rhode Island’s total labor force actually experiencing a decline in recent years. Although labor force decline is a negative factor, counter-intuitively, it has improved the state’s increasingly unreliable unemployment rate metric.


Rhode Islanders need a credible alternative to the status quo and its destructive progressive ideas. You can help.

Click here to find out more >>>

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is the Ocean State’s leading voice against the wreckage caused by our state’s progressive agenda.

As the state’s leading research organization, advancing family and business friendly values… the mission of our Center is to make Rhode Island a better place to call home – to raise a family and to build a career.

While progressives value government-centric, taxpayer-funded dependency… our Center believes in the value of hard work and the free-enterprise system.

We understand that in order for more Rhode Island families to have a better quality of life, that more and better businesses are needed to create more and better jobs.

Your donation will help us fight the union-progressive movement and, instead, advocate for pro-family, pro-business policies and values.

Please make a generous, tax-deductible gift to support our Center today!

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Strong families are the backbone to a free and thriving society. The root of this out-migration problem can best be captured by the Family Prosperity Index (FPI). As the most in-depth research on family well-being ever conducted, the FPI compiles 60 national indexes into 30 secondary categories as part of six major categories: Economics, Demographics, Family Self-Sufficiency, Family Structure, Family Culture, and Family Health.

This out-migration problem was highlighted in the Center’s original 2016 Rhode Island Family Prosperity Index report, where the Ocean State ranked a dismal 48th among all states.

In the updated 2017 FPI , while Rhode Island improved to 45th nationally, up three spots from 2016, the state suffers from a bottom-third ranking in five of six major categories and 16 of 30 secondary categories. The state ranked in the top-third in just six of the 30 secondary categories.

Despite this mild improvement, a more disturbing long-term trend is emerging. In the past five years, Rhode Island’s score in the important major category of Family Self-Sufficiency has declined by 9.8%. Over this same period, the Ocean State also saw declines in Family Structure, Family Health, and its overall FPI score, albeit with increased scores in Economics, Demographics, and Family Culture.

Combined with a separate measure that saddles Rhode Island with the worst-ranked business climate in the  nation, this one-two punch to the gut has been insurmountable hurdles for many Ocean State families and businesses to overcome.

Todd Sandahl family

Todd Sandahl and family

Todd Sandahl is one of those 80,000 individuals who felt compelled to make the difficult personal choice to uproot his family and move to another state that offered more financial security. An electrical engineer by trade, Sandahl couldn’t find meaningful employment in Rhode Island and became tired of his long commute to Massachusetts. He decided to pack his bags and head to Colorado for more opportunities, when he saw no future in the Ocean State.

FPI: a strategic roadmap. Rhode Islanders understand that better opportunities for prosperity can only be realized if more and better businesses create more and better jobs. Connecting the dots, it appears that Rhode Island’s poor opportunity for prosperity is a major reason why more people choose to leave our state than those who choose to come.

Rhode Island’s Family Prosperity Index not only highlights the state’s many specific problems, but the FPI can also be used as a roadmap to reverse these troubling trends. There is no single “silver-bullet” solution to the Ocean State’s many shortcomings. As it took hundreds of pieces of misguided legislation and regulation over recent decades to sink the state into a hole, it will take dozens, if not hundreds, of strategically aligned positive steps to pull us out.

Clearly, a new strategic policy direction is required for our state — a direction that the political class and civil society can largely agree upon. The high levels of taxation and regulation demanded by the state’s budget have led to the subsequent negative impacts on the business community and on family finances, as illustrated by Rhode Island’s out-migration losses. Yet the state’s political leaders continue to adhere to a misguided fealty to a budget that actually harms the very people they are sworn to serve. Indeed the state budget itself, and the policies that support it, could be considered to be the enemy of the people.

The FPI shows us the way. The major lesson of the original 2016 RI FPI report is that strong families lead to a strong economy, and vice versa. The clear, empirical evidence from a detailed analysis of reams of data from government and publicly available private sources confirms that a focus on pro-family outcomes, via policies that promote work and marriage, can lead to improved economic outcomes for the entire state.

By looking to improve each of the 60 FPI indexes, one at a time, the Ocean State can begin to turn its ship around. This focus will be at the core of the Center’s ongoing public policy advocacy and will be the primary mission of the recently formed RI Families Coalition.


The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is the Ocean State’s leading voice against the wreckage caused by our state’s progressive agenda.

As the state’s leading research organization, advancing family and business friendly values… the mission of our Center is to make Rhode Island a better place to call home – to raise a family and to build a career.

While progressives value government-centric, taxpayer-funded dependency… our Center believes in the value of hard work and the free-enterprise system.

We understand that in order for more Rhode Island families to have a better quality of life, that more and better businesses are needed to create more and better jobs.

Your donation will help us fight the union-progressive movement and, instead, advocate for pro-family, pro-business policies and values.

Please make a generous, tax-deductible gift to support our Center today!