Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

BACKGROUND

The Current Conditions Index (CCI) is a monthly indicator that details the present state of the Rhode Island economy by following the behavior of twelve key economic indicators pertaining to housing, retail sales, fiscal pressures, the employment situation, and labor supply:

Government Employment
Employment Services Jobs*
Retail Sales
University of Michigan US Consumer Sentiment Index**
Single-Unit Housing Permits
Private Service-Producing Employment***
Manufacturing Man-hours****
Average Hourly Manufacturing Wage
Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate
Resident Labor Force
New Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance
Unemployment Insurance Regular Benefit Exhaustions

The CCI ranges from 0, when no indicators improve compared to year-earlier levels, to 100, when all twelve show improvement. Values above 50, the "neutral" value, indicate that the Rhode Island economy is expanding, while values below 50 are indicative of contraction. Prior to "The Great Recession" that began in June of 2007, the CCI had never attained a value of 0, indicating that no indicators improved relative to year-earlier values. This changed in 2008, when the CCI fell to 0 on three occasions, and in 2009, when another value of 0 was recorded. Prior to this, the low for the CCI had been 8, which occurred for only a single month on several occasions. For almost all of 2008, the CCI recorded values of 8. The CCI attained its maximum value of 100 on several occasions, for almost all of 1984 and once in 1986. Note that these values occurred exclusively when Rhode Island was still a manufacturing-based economy.

* Up until February 2006, the CCI used Help Wanted Advertising for Providence, RI as one of its indicators (and toward the end of its use an econometric adjustment was required). This indicator replaces Help Wanted Advertising.
** Prior to the October 2001 report, the CCI used Existing Home Sales in Rhode Island. This indicator replaces Existing Home Sales.
*** Prior to the January 2003 report, Miscellaneous Service Employment, a major category of the SIC codes, was used. Now that NAICS replaces the SIC codes, the current indicator was chosen to replace Miscellaneous Service Employment.
****Beginning with the November 2005 report, Manufacturing Man-hours will be referred to as Total Manufacturing Hours.

THE CCI THIS MONTH
MONTHLY HIGHLIGHTS:

MAY 2014:67

Rhode Island’s economy bounced back a bit from its earlier-year woes in May. Following a string of three consecutive 58 values, the Current Conditions Index rose to 67 in May, matching its January value. While Rhode Island’s overall performance in 2014 has been somewhat disappointing, perhaps the May bounce will turn out to be the beginning of a prolonged period of stronger economic activity driven in large part by an improving national economy. Clearly, there have been a number of positives during the first part of this year, most notably improvements in both payroll and resident employment, and along with the latter, a full percentage point decline in our state’s Unemployment Rate. Yet in spite of this good news, Rhode Island’s performance continues to lag in terms of several metrics, the most obvious being the #1 national ranking of our state’s jobless rate that has been sustained for far too long a period. So, while our state’s absolute economic performance continues to improve, its relative performance remains problematic. Sadly, this trend hardly something new. I will continue to describe the overall economic performance of Rhode Island’s economy as precarious, citing the fact that May was the tenth consecutive month where the CCI failed to improve relative to its year-earlier value.

For May, only three of the five leading indicators contained within the Current Conditions Index improved, but two of those did so at healthy rates. Fortunately, the two that failed to improve do not necessarily signal any real weakness in our state’s economy or the possibility of a transition to slower growth. US Consumer Sentiment fell by 3.1 percent in May, ending a string of five consecutive increases. This decline very likely reflected stock market performance that has since reversed. Employment Service Jobs, which includes temporary employment, and is a prerequisite to employment growth, fell by another 1.1 percent in May, its sixth consecutive decline. Suffice it to say that I continue to view changes in this indicator somewhat suspiciously.

Single-Unit Permits, which reflect new home construction, and was adversely impacted by winter weather earlier in the year, turned in a strong performance in May, rising by 9 percent relative to last May. Total Manufacturing Hours, which measures strength in our manufacturing sector, rose sharply again in May (+3.1%), as both the length of the workweek rose and manufacturing employment increased by 900. Oddly, in spite of this manufacturing momentum, the Manufacturing Wage actually declined for a third time in May, by 2.3 percent. New Claims for Unemployment Insurance, the timeliest measure of layoffs, declined, albeit slowly in May, for a third consecutive month and sixth time in the last seven months. In spite of its recent improvements, it is not yet clear whether this indicator has resumed the longer-term downtrend that will be critical to our sustaining May’s overall momentum in the coming months.

Government Employment	-0.2
US Consumer Sentiment	-3.1
Single-Unit Permits	9.0	Y
Retail Sales	4.9	Y
Employment Services Jobs	-1.1
Priv. Serv-Prod Employment	1.4	Y
Total Manufacturing Hours	3.14	Y
Manufacturing Wage	-2.3
Labor Force	0.0	Y
Benefit Exhaustions	-13.1	Y
New Claims	-0.3	Y
Unemployment Rate (change)	-1.3	Y
Y = Improved Value

Retail Sales remained strong in May, rising by just under 5 percent compared to a year ago. This indicator has now improved for eleven of the last twelve months. Based on its recent performance, it is one of the strongest CCI indicators. Benefit Exhaustions, which reflects longer-term unemployment, improved at a double-digit rate in May (-13.1%), registering its second consecutive double-digit improvement. Private Service-Producing Employment rose by 1.4 percent in May, the same rate of improvement it displayed in April. Its rate of growth has remained above the one-percent level since January. Government Employment fell once again, declining by 0.2 percent versus last May. Its level has clearly plateaued around 60,000, which was its May value. Finally, Rhode Island’s Labor Force actually rose in May, by a mighty 0.02 percent. Prior to this month, the last time the Labor Force rose was last April. Along with this encouraging Labor Force change came a significant drop in our Unemployment Rate, all the way from 9.5 percent last May to “only” 8.2 percent this year, still #1 nationally.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Rhode Island's May performance could be a sign that our state is at long last in the process of regaining the momentum we witnessed at the end of 2012. Will this recovery become more broadly based than it has become of late or will we revert to where we have been during the first part of 2014? The first true sign of improvement will be our ability to exceed year-earlier CCI values, something we haven't done for ten consecutive months. True improvement will mean that our state's economic performance will not only be gaining momentum in absolute terms (looking only at us) but in relative terms as well (compared to the nation).

Monthly CCI Values (red = recession)
(Note: These are revised values. Original reports sometimes specify different CCI values, based on originally released data.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1983	42	58	58	67	75	83	83	75	83	83	83	92
1984	100	92	100	100	100	100	100	92	100	92	92	83
1985	67	75	75	75	67	75	67	50	50	58	83	67
1986	75	83	100	92	92	83	92	92	92	92	92	67
1987	67	67	58	58	67	75	75	75	75	67	75	75
1988	83	83	75	67	67	67	58	50	67	58	50	58
1989	67	50	50	33	58	33	25	25	25	33	33	33
1990	25	25	25	25	17	17	17	17	33	17	25	25
1991	25	17	17	8	25	17	25	25	25	33	17	17
1992	42	42	58	75	75	83	75	67	67	83	83	92
1993	75	83	67	67	83	67	75	75	75	58	42	58
1994	58	67	67	58	58	75	67	67	67	67	83	75
1995	58	58	58	67	50	42	42	42	58	33	67	42
1996	50	42	75	75	67	75	75	67	75	92	83	92
1997	100	92	83	75	67	75	75	75	83	75	92	83
1998	83	75	75	75	75	75	75	67	58	75	75	50
1999	83	75	75	83	67	83	75	75	92	75	83	58
2000	83	83	83	67	42	50	58	50	58	67	67	67
2001	42	33	25	17	33	50	25	33	33	42	33	42
2002	58	75	67	58	42	33	50	50	58	67	67	50
2003	50	50	50	58	58	58	83	67	83	75	92	67
2004	67	67	58	67	58	58	67	67	67	58	50	67
2005	50	67	50	50	42	75	58	67	42	58	58	67
2006	58	58	67	58	33	50	33	58	75	83	58	67
2007	50	50	33	33	58	50	33	33	17	17	8	25
2008	8	8	8	17	8	0	8	0	8	0	8	8
2009	17	8	0	8	17	33	17	42	33	42	50	33
2010	42	58	67	67	75	75	83	83	67	67	75	83
2011	50	67	67	58	50	58	58	42	50	50	58	50
2012	58	50	58/75	50/75	58/67	67/75	50/58	67/75	50/58	75/83	75/83	92
2013	75	67	83	67	83	75	75	67	7 5	75	67	75
2014	75	58	58	58	67

You can download monthly reports in PDF format starting
with January 1999 by clicking on the monthly index value.

Historical Annual CCI Values

1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
42	54	33	74	96	67	88	69	65	39
1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
22	21	70	69	67	51	72	81	72	77
2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
65	39	56	66	63	57	54	40	7	24
2010	2011	2012	2013
70	55	74	76

Annual CCI Values

Monthly CCI Values (red = recession) (Note: These are revised values. Original reports sometimes specify different CCI values, based on originally released data.

Historical Annual CCI Values

Monthly CCI Values (red = recession)
(Note: These are revised values. Original reports sometimes specify different CCI values, based on originally released data.