Lake County lost jobs in June. The latest figures from the South Dakota Department of Labor show that Lake County lost 215 jobs between May and June. 200 people also left the workforce. 6145 jobs, 6470 available workers... that makes a June unemployment rate of 5.0%, up from 4.6% in June.
That decline is predictable: with DSU out of session, jobs and workers thin out for the summer. In 20 out of the last 22 years, June has brought a decline in Lake County jobs compared to May. This June's drop matched the 22-year average May&ndashJune drop of 2.2%. Brookings County saw a similar end-of-school-year drop, with over a thousand jobs and just about a thousand workers dropping from the rolls. Brookings has lost jobs in 19 of the last 22 May&ndashJune periods, but this June's drop of 5.8% far exceeded the average May&ndashJune drop of 1.8%. That strong drop led to June unemployment rate in Brookings County of 4.6%, the highest rate they've seen since 1990.
Our less collegiate neighbors mostly added jobs from May to June. All the college kids must have gone home to work for the summer!
- Kingsbury County added 60 jobs. With 55 new available workers, their unemployment dropped a tick from 4.3% to 4.2%.
- McCook County added 15 jobs (workforce up 10; unemployment down from 4.8% to 4.7%).
- Miner County held steady with 1180 jobs, but five people left the workforce, so the unemployment rate around Howard dropped from 5.1% to 4.8%.
- Minnehaha County added 675 jobs and gained 610 workforce members, dropping unemployment from 4.7% to 4.6%.
- Moody County added 45 jobs, but 155 people joined the job search, so the unemployment rate leapt from 5.2% to 7.6%.
So how's the Lake Area Improvement Corporation doing on its Forward Madison job creation goal of 400 new jobs by the end of 2011? With six months to go, we have 520 fewer jobs than we had in October 2006, when LAIC exec Dwaine Chapel said that we'd have 7065 jobs by the end of this year.
Hmm.... 520 fewer jobs in June 2011 than we had in October 2006. That's a 7.8% decline. The recession must have beaten us up pretty badly. But that's funny: statewide from October 2006 to June 2011, jobs increased 1.7%. Hmm....
Cory,
I think you are missing the point. Its not about how many jobs we have in Madison, its about the potential jobs we have. ;)
The Department of Labor really should start measuring potential jobs so that we can get a boost in this town. Can't they add an extra column in that excel spreadsheet and make things look good for Madison?
*Rolls Eyes*
When are we going to see an article from other local media discussing these same FACTUAL numbers and comparisons?
Cory, can you come up with a map that shows how jobs were won/lost based on geography and distance from the Interstate?
[Interesting idea! But that might take me some time: my project stack is pretty high!]