Northumberland County's Unemployment Rate Jumps to 10 percent; First time it has been in double digits since 1992

BY JUSTIN STRAWSER (staff writer justin_s@newsitem.com)
Published: July 2, 2009

Article Tools
Font size: [A] [A] [A]
Our Social Networks
Facebook
Facebook
Sign Up newsletter

Northumberland County's unemployment rate reached double digits in May - the first it's been that high in nearly 17 years.

It was June 1992 when unemployment reached 10.3 percent.

According to the latest state Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) data released Tuesday, 10 percent of county residents are unemployed, up half a percentage point from April to May.

Last month, DLI reported April's unemployment rate in the county was 9.6; however, the latest rate for April, released Tuesday, was 9.5.

The rise comes after a slight drop last month, which DLI labor analysts had said appeared to be stabilizing. Despite the sudden rise again, Northumberland County moved into the bottom 18, ranking 49th out of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania.

The county average remains above the state average unemployment rate, 8.1

percent, and the national average, 9.1 percent. Both these averages have jumped since last month.

State and national rates have not been seasonally adjusted, meaning totals include all people without work, even college students currently home on break.

Since October 2008, the rate has risen over 2.5 percentage points, and is only .1 percentage point away from doubling October's 2007 rate of 5.1

In the past year, Paper Magic and Fleetwood Enterprises, both formerly in Elysburg, and Crest Homes in Milton, closed their plants, driving the county's unemployment rate up. This month, Knight-Celotex, which has a plant in Sunbury, filed for bankruptcy. Additionally, Chysler and GM have all cut drastically back on the amount of dealerships in the nation.

Schuylkill County is the only county adjacent to Northumberland County that has a higher unemployment rate, with 10.2. Jobless rates in other neighboring counties are: Montour, 6.6 percent; Dauphin, 7.5 percent; Perry, 7.8 percent; Juniata, 6.5 percent; Columbia, 8.7 percent; Snyder, 9 percent; Lycoming, 9.3 percent; and Union, 9.3 percent.

Of those counties, only Montour County's unemployment rate dropped, if only slightly, since last month's numbers were released.

The lowest jobless rate in the commonwealth is still in Centre County, where 5.9 percent of the residents are out of work, up slightly from last month's data. Cameron County is still home to the highest jobless rate in the state, which is currently at 18.6 percent, up nearly 2 percentage points since last month.

Nineteen counties, including Northumberland and Schuylkill counties, are currently in double digits for unemployment rates.

May: 10 percent

April: 9.5

March: 9.7

Feb.: 9.5

Jan.: 8.9

Dec. '08: 8.8

Ads by Yahoo!






Type in the characters you see in the picture below. If you have trouble reading the characters in the picture, click it to see a new one.



2 posted comments

This is well and fine information but this doesn't help those of us that are out of work get work again. What is this new information going to do to the unemployment payments? How long can someone stay on unemployment? Somethin has got to be done to get jobs back to this area. I can't afford to move elsewhere where there is work.
Report
Susan,  07/02/09 11:29
since northumberland county has such a high rate of unemployment what is our elected officials ( state & federal) doing to bring any type of jobs and NOT MINIMUM WAGE--to the area? In the past two years since Paper magic and Fleetwood has closed our so-called elected officials have done nothing but collect a pay check to help us out!!
Report
S. Anderson,  07/02/09 9:35