The unemployment rate in the St. Cloud metro area dipped to its lowest level in a year.
Advertisement
The county’s jobless rate was tied for fourth lowest in the state with DE and Auglaize counties, the state Job and Family Services Department reported.
Numerous lost jobs came in the leisure and hospitality sector, as tourism-oriented businesses shed seasonal employees during the shoulder season.
Such good news was not contained to Van Wert County alone.
According to DWS, Arkansas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined one-tenth of a percentage point, from 5.2 percent in September to 5.1 percent in October. Each month listed 500 as unemployed. Damon Runberg, regional economist for the Employment Department, said the seasonal hiring cycle can create a situation where the unemployment rate improves while job losses increase during the fall months. That is an improvement from September, when the DOL reported 45,100 people working and 2,800 people on the dole, and better than October 2014, when there were 44,900 working and 3,000 were getting unemployment benefits.
Unemployment rates rose in Boone, Calhoun, Pendleton and Pocahontas counties.
We also had a 2.9 percent unemployment rate in October of previous year.
Advertisement
“This month the drop in the unemployment rate also coincided with a couple of months of seasonally adjusted employment increases, so it’s an indication that employment growth is driving down the unemployment rate”.
