Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in seven years and three months in September.
The September unemployment rate was 11.4%, which the commonwealth last equaled in June 2008. It is now 5.5 percentage points lower than its recession peak in May 2010, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The rate was down 0.2 percentage points from August and 2.5 percentage points from its level in September 2014.
Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate is more than double the U.S. average for states and territories. The island’s economic slump has contributed to a debt crisis, with the governor seeking to restructure most of about $71 billion of bond debt.
According to data from this same household survey the number employed on the island rose 0.7% from August and 1.3% from September 2014. The data is seasonally adjusted.
The bureau also releases employment data based on a survey of nonfarm workplaces. This survey , which excludes self-employment from its count, was more mixed than the household survey. In September total employment was up 0.77% from a year earlier, but down 0.14% from August.
In the establishment survey, private sector employment in September rose 0.86% from a year earlier, though it fell 0.13% from August.
