Lake County March Unemployment Unchanged at 5.7%

Lake County gets a mixed report on March unemployment. 60 more jobs materialized, but 65 more people joined the workforce—a statistical wash, as the unemployment rate stayed at 5.7%. With 6185 jobs in the county, the LAIC is now needs to create 900 jobs in the next 20 months to meet its Forward Madison job creation goal.

Our neighbors in Brookings saw jobs decline, leading to a two-decade record high unemployment rate of 4.3%. Brookings was the only neighboring county to see an actual loss of jobs; like Lake, every other county on our borders added jobs last month. Moody County was the only neighbor that managed to add more jobs than the number of people entering the workforce.

Every county around here matched the statewide trend of more people entering the workforce in March. But that appears to be a seasonal trend, occurring regularly over the last 20 years.