A study published in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday shows the job outlook in the Ocean State is one of the bleakest in the country, and it is not going to improve anytime soon.
Experts took a hard look at the numbers and predicted how long it will take for each state to get the jobs back it had before the recession. Their prediction for Rhode Island is year 2017 or longer. There are only two other states in as bad of shape as Rhode Island - Michigan and Rhode Island.
State leaders agree it is a growing problem.
"It's a concern," State Treasurer Gina Raimondo said. "We are at 11% unemployment. We need to do more."
University of Rhode Island Economist Len Lardaro wants less talk and more action. He says he is not surprised Rhode Island is at the bottom of the job list, because its leaders have never directly addressed how to fix it, and now the solution is not so paint by number.
"Let's critique it. find the weaknesses and let's get going," Lardaro said. "We should have done this back in 2008. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste and we wasted it. There's no excuse for that."
The study did not take into account the number of jobs needed for those who entered the workforce after the recession began.
