More Jobs, Even More Job Seekers: Lake County Unemployment 4.6%

The good news on local labor: Lake County put 100 more people to work in October! That's 1.6% more jobs in one month—good thing harvest keeps people busy.

The kinda-bad news: unemployment still went up in Lake County from 4.3% in September to 4.6% in October. 125 more people joined the workforce... which some people argue is a good economic sign. And let's keep in mind that almost anywhere else in America, 4.6% unemployment sounds like Nirvana. (Include that in your grateful commentary over turkey tomorrow.)

Neighboring counties present a similarly mixed October jobs picture: Brookings, Miner, and Moody counties all added jobs but added even more people looking for them. Kingsbury saw its jobs and labor force each grow by 60. McCook lost five jobs but found ten more willing workers. Minnehaha saw declines in both categories, shedding 310 jobs and 240 members of the labor force.

Locally, our noble Lake Area Improvement Corporation has a shot at meeting its Forward Madison job creation goal. We are now just 765 jobs short of meeting the 400-new-jobs goal set by the LAIC back in 2006. Kind of like cramming for exams during finals week....