Northwoods jobless numbers remain high, but are lower than one year ago.
The state released unemployment numbers for cities and counties this week.
Iron county has the state's highest unemployment rate at 13.1 percent...Vilas is fifth-highest at 12.1 percent. Forest county is 8th highest of 72 counties at 10.9 percent, Oneida is ninth at 10.1 percent. Langlade county is at 9.2 percent, while Lincoln county is at 8.8 percent. The area's lowest rate is Price county with a jobless rate of 6.8 percent.
State economist Scott Hodek says the numbers reflect the seasonal expectations but he says the region is not seeing much growth in the labor force....
"....in your listening area, both Lincoln and Vilas had labor force growth. Wisconsin as a state did too. But it's not a lot and not as much as we would expect, given a constantly growing labor force where students are joining, that sort of thing..."
He says only one county saw the rate rise from February...
"....Forest(county) is the only one in your listening area that saw the rate rise from February to March. But typically February and into March are the highest rates of the year...."
All the Northwoods counties saw the rate go down from a half-percent to one percent or more from one year ago. Dane county had the state's lowest rate at 4.4 percent.
