Parts of the Northwoods are back to pre-Great Recession employment levels according to state unemployment numbers. Wisconsin's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 percent, a 15 year low, while adding more than 45,000 private sector jobs over the year ending July 2016.
Wisconsin's labor force participation rate ranked seventh among states. State Labor Market Analyst Scott Hodek says the Northwoods followed the lower trend from one year ago. He says to the surprise of few, one sector dominated the hiring....
"....I did a quick rundown and as we expected a fair amount of the jobs were in accomodations, food services, but also in construction. In Vilas(county) there was a gain of 96 construction jobs over the year...."
Hodek says all the trends show more people are working here...
"....most of the listening area has seen the unemployment rates down pretty much the whole year. Generally speaking, most counties saw some labor force growth, they saw some employment growth, they saw the number of unemployed dropping, and unemployment rates have basically followed...."
In the Northwoods, Iron county has the state's second highest rate at 6.9 percent. One year ago in Iron county unemployment was 8.4 percent. Other July numbers found Forest county third highest in the state at 6.3 percent, Langlade at 5.3 percent, Lincoln at 4.5 percent, Vilas 4.3 percent, Oneida 4.1 percent, and Price county at 3.8 percent.
