Rhode Island was prominently mentioned in a Yahoo Business article as being one of the states being hardest hit in the current financial crisis.  The states mentioned in the article have high unemployment rates, but they also have other things in common, such as home prices that have fallen sharply, declining manufacturing, and a financial services sector facing problems.  More news, and as usual, it's bad news.



http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090109/unemployment_worst_states.html