PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The unemployment rate in Rhode Island stayed flat in June at 8.9 percent, according to data released Thursday afternoon by the R.I. Department of Labor and Training.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for both Rhode Island and the United States as a whole remained unchanged in June. The national unemployment rate is 7.6 percent.
"We've seen virtually no change in the unemployment rate for the last three months," said Laura Hart, a DLT spokeswoman.
Rhode Island-based jobs increased by 400 in June.
DLT monthly data show that the number of 16- to 24-year-olds who classified themselves as discouraged workers increased in June when compared with June 2012, something that surprised Donna Murray, the agency's assistant director of Labor Market Information.
"You would expect them to want to work," she said.
It's unclear why that is, she said.
Conversely, the number of older workers returning to the Rhode Island workforce rose in June.
Separately, an analysis of tax data conducted by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training indicates that more people were employed in the state at the end of the first quarter of 2013 than originally reported.
DLT data released Monday shows the state created 1,700 more jobs than estimated in March. The number of Rhode Island jobs in the first quarter was 468,600. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the number of jobs in Rhode Island at the end of the first quarter was 466,900.
The DLT estimate suggests that annual rise of 2,300 Rhode Island-based jobs and a growth rate of 0.5 percent, higher than the previous estimate of 600 additional jobs and a 0.1-percent growth rate.
The department considers its new analysis more accurate than federal data as it is based on tax data from the state's 32,000 private-sector employers, whereas federal data is based on a smaller survey of empoyers.