More people are working in the Northwoods. The state has released the July unemployment numbers and all the northern counties have lower unemployment rates than the previous year.
Labor economist Scott Hodek says some counties are also seeing a positive hiring trend, but a couple are not....
"....a couple of those counties, Langlade and Vilas especially and I'm thinking that may be related to an older population, we actually saw some labor force drops versus last year, while(three others) added labor force which is a good trend. For awhile we weren't seeing much in the way of labor force growth...."
Locally, Iron County has the state's second highest rate at 8.5 percent, Forest county is fourth at 7.2 percent. Langlade County is at 6 percent, Vilas at 5.5, Lincoln at 5.1, Oneida at 4.8 percent, and Price at 4.3. All those numbers are down 1 to 2 points from last year at this time.
The lowest rate in Wisconsin in July was Dane county near Madison with a 3.2 percent rate. Menominee County had the highest unemployment rate at 11.6 percent.
