Nationally, the median age is 36.8 years.
Personal income
Rhode Island ranked fifth among the New England states in personal income.
The total $43.4 billion in the first quarter dipped 0.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008. Only Connecticut among the New England states had a bigger drop, 1.2 percent.
The downturn in one industry -- financial services -- accounted for the bulk of the decline in earnings in Rhode Island. After finance, the hardest-hit sector was construction, for which aggregate income fell 5.6 percent quarter on quarter.
Rhode Island was one of 37 states in which personal income declined quarter to quarter during the first three months of the year. For the United States as a whole, income was down 0.5 percent in the first quarter after falling 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Gross state product
Rhode Island's gross state product in 2008 declined 2.1 percent, compared with an increase of 0.4 percent in the other New England states.
For 2009, gross state product in Rhode Island is forecast at $36.7 billion, down 3.1 percent from 2008, according to the New England Economic Partnership. The decline in the other New England states is estimated at 2.7 percent.
Education
Rhode Island has a relatively low high school graduation rate. Only 71 percent of members of the Class of 2005 earned high school diplomas, putting Rhode Island below Kentucky and West Virginia in the national rankings. The average level of schooling in Rhode Island ranks near heartland states such as Kansas and Nebraska.
Educational attainment is important to give people the skills to work in a knowledge-based economy, which attracts investment and companies that hire workers.
Rhode Island also has to reverse the brain drain of college graduates who create and manage new companies. The U.S. Census Bureau found that Rhode Island ranked sixth in the country in the loss of young, single, college-educated residents.
Opportunities
--T.F. Green Airport, a regional hub served by low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines, is completing a new $175-million people mover and station to connect the commuter rail line from Boston to the airport terminal. The Federal Aviation Administration has tentatively approved the extension of a runway to allow nonstop flights to the West Coast.
--Deepwater Wind plans to build 100 wind turbines off the coast of Rhode Island, creating the first offshore wind farm on the East Coast. The New Jersey company has signed an agreement with the state and has agreed to use Quonset Business Park as a staging area for the project, creating hundreds of jobs. The project could be a cornerstone for creating an alternative-energy economy in Rhode Island.
--Drugmaker Amgen runs one of the world's largest biomanufacturing plants in West Greenwich and a second biopharmaceutical company, Alexion, is nearing completion of a $116-million drug manufacturing plant in Smithfield. State officials say that the life sciences sector is among the industries with the best potential for growth, based on the high quality of the state's universities and research hospitals and rapidly growing health-care spending in the United States.
Economic events
Twin River, a gambling facility, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The owners and lenders have tentatively agreed to a change in control, but the matter is far from resolved. Twin River contributes about $245 million annually to the state budget. Any change in control or in its agreement with the state would have ramifications for the state budget.
Outlook
The U.S. unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 10 percent by year's end, but gross domestic product, a key indicator of economic activity, is expected to turn positive by year's end. That would signal that a national recovery is under way, which eventually will put people to work and pull state economies with it.
So is the bottom of the Rhode Island's longest, deepest recession in decades in sight?
Yes. In the distance. The economy is starting to show signs of stabilizing. But the days earlier this decade of single-digit unemployment, spiking property values and booming development seemingly on every corner will not return soon.
Rhode Island's recovery will be a grind.
With reports from Benjamin N. Gedan. John Kostrzewa is The Journal's business editor and can be e-mailed at jkostrze@projo.com
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