Unemployment rate tops 15%
Scott County’s unemployment rate has climbed above 15% for the first time in over one and a half decades, new employment figures released last week by the State Dept. of Labor & Workforce Development indicate.
According to the data released Friday, Scott County’s unemployment rate followed a statewide lead in December with a substantial jump over November’s jobless claims. The local rate climbed nearly 2% in December, to 15.1%. Statewide, the jobless rate climbed to 7.9% in December, up from November’s rate of 7.0%.
The local figures are based on a labor force of 8,660 workers, with 7,350 being employed and 1,310 being without work in December. The year ended with the local unemployment rate having nearly doubled over the course of 12 months. In December 2007, the jobless rate was 7.8%.
Despite the steadily worsening jobless picture, Scott County still has not reached the levels of unemployment experienced during an economic recession in the early 1990s. In January 1993, as the nation’s economy was beginning to recover, the unemployment rate reached a high of 17.0%. At the time, the local labor force was estimated at 8,160 workers, with 1,380 claiming jobless benefits. The jobless rate topped 15% on multiple occasions during that recession, including 16.7% in June 1992 and 16.1% in June 1991.
The unemployment rate is likely to go even higher, however, with additional job cuts having taken place locally since Jan. 1, and seems destined to reach its highest point since the recession of the early 1980s.
On a statewide basis, some economists have predicted that the unemployment rate will top out at around 9% by mid-summer. Nationally, leading economists have made similar predictions.
Scott County’s unemployment rate during the early ‘80s climbed well above 20%. The national unemployment rate peaked at 10.8% during that period.
Statewide, the unemployment rate climbed in all 95 counties in December. In Anderson County, the jobless rate jumped from 5.9% to 6.6%. In Campbell County, it jumped from 8.3% to 9.1%. In Fentress County, it was up from 10.6% to 12.1%. In Morgan County, the rate was up from 7.6% to 8.9%. In Pickett County, the jobless rate climbed from 13.3% to 14.2%.
The state’s lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Williamson County, at 5.0%. Perry County recorded the state’s highest rate, at 20.1%. Lauderdale County, at 15.3%, slipped by Scott County with the state’s second-highest rate. Pickett County was just behind Scott with the fourth-highest unemployment rate.