TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
On Wednesday, Mar. 17, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) released the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates of unemployment and employment statistics for Wisconsin metropolitan areas, major cities and counties in Wisconsin for January 2021. Their press release indicates preliminary non-seasonally adjusted data for Wisconsin shows:
• January 2021 unemployment rates increased in all of Wisconsin’s 12 Metropolitan Statistical Areas over the month and over the year.
• January 2021 unemployment rates declined or stayed the same in 3 of Wisconsin’s 34 largest cities over the month and increased in all 34 cities over the year.
• January 2021 unemployment rates increased in 68 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties over the month and over the year.
On the positive side, Lincoln County was not one of them. The preliminary report generated from the DWD website shows that Lincoln County had a 4.7 percent unemployment rate in January 2021 which is the exact same unemployment rate as the County experienced in January 2020, prior to COVID.
The annual report for Lincoln County showed a 5.9 percent unemployment for the year 2020 as they County sought to cope with the effects of COVID.
While the data for 2021 is only one month into the year, that single statistic is good news for Lincoln County.