Jobless rate down, but some sectors hurting
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 1, 2003
Freeborn County’s unemployment rate dipped to its lowest level since the Farmland fire in May, but it remains higher than in some neighboring counties, and state figures show an overall drop in manufacturing jobs in the last five years.
The county’s jobless rate was 4.1 percent in May, down from 4.7 percent in April and matching the rate from September 2002, the lowest it’s been since June 2001. In May 2001, before the fire that shut down Albert Lea’s Farmland meat-processing plant and put around 500 out of work, the rate was 3.1 percent.
The dip in May 2003 can mostly be attributed to seasonal fluctuations, said Curt Schoenrock, a program specialist with the Minnesota Workforce Center in Albert Lea.
&uot;I don’t think this can really be attributed to anything significant that’s happening,&uot; he said.
Brenda Miller, a regional labor market analyst with the Workforce Center out of Rochester, said Freeborn County’s manufacturing sector is still hurting nearly two years after the Farmland fire. From 2000 to 2001, the county lost 634 manufacturing jobs, the bulk of which were from Farmland.
However, data show that other employers have cut back, as well. The Freeborn County economy has seen job losses in machine manufacturing and metal products industries, Miller said. Over the last five years, the county has lost 20 percent of its manufacturing jobs, she said.
Miller said the county’s retail economy remains strong, with the new Home Depot helping keep the number of jobs steady.
In May, 438 people in Freeborn County were collecting unemployment, up from 379 in 2002, even though the unemployment rate was slightly down from a year before. Miller said most of the people collecting unemployment were those in construction (25 percent), transportation (24 percent) and production (14 percent).
Unemployment rates in neighboring counties for May 2003: Waseca, 4.3 percent; Mower, 3.1 percent; Faribault, 3.3 percent; Steele, 3.9 percent. The Minnesota rate was 3.8 percent and the national rate was 5.8 percent. None of the figures are seasonally adjusted.