Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
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| City remains highest in Virginia |
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Thursday, December 31, 2009
By ELIZA WINSTON - Bulletin Staff Writer
Unemployment in Martinsville and Henry County rose slightly in November, and the city’s rate remains the highest in the state.
According to statistics released by the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) on Wednesday, Martinsville’s unemployment rose 0.2 percent, from 19.8 percent in October to 20.0 percent in November.
Martinsville still had the highest unemployment rate out of the 134 localities surveyed in Virginia.
Henry County’s rate of 13.4 percent was the third highest in the state, and Patrick County’s rate of 10.6 percent was the 14th highest, said Bill Mezger, chief economist for the VEC’s Economic Information Services Division.
The number of unemployed Martinsville city residents rose to 1,216 in November, compared with 1,207 unemployed residents in October, Mezger said. In November 2008, the city’s unemployment rate was 15.3 percent.
The total number of jobless residents in the Henry County-Martinsville micropolitan area rose from 4,526 people in October to 4,601 in November, Mezger said. The unemployment rate for the micropolitan area rose from 14.4 percent in October to 14.7 percent in November.
Henry County’s unemployment rate rose from 13.1 percent in October to 13.4 percent in November. The county’s unemployment rate in November 2008 was 9.6 percent, Mezger said.
There were 3,385 jobless Henry County residents this November, compared with 3,319 out of work in October.
In Patrick County, according to Mezger, there were 954 jobless residents in November, up from 901 in October.
The unemployment rate in Patrick County rose from 10.0 percent in October to 10.6 percent in November. He said Patrick County’s unemployment rate was 8.0 percent in November 2008.
The total number of employed Henry County-Martinsville residents dropped to 26,668 in November, down from 26,834 in October, Mezger said. The labor force, or sum of employed workers and people seeking work in Henry County-Martinsville, was 31,269 people in November compared with 31,360 in October, a drop of 91 people.
According to VEC reports, the number of Virginia residents drawing unemployment benefits in November 2009 was 80,000, the same as in October, but up from 57,000 in November 2008.
Mezger said unemployment typically goes up between October and November, and then it drops in December when job-seekers get holiday work. However, this year, he said many retailers hired extra people in November for Black Friday sales. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has become one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
In other areas, that extra hiring helped offset the seasonal layoffs of construction work and furloughs from extra inventory. However, he said that because Martinsville and Henry County’s retail sector is small, the extra holiday hiring did not offset other layoffs, causing the unemployment to rise slightly.
Mezger said it is normal for unemployment to go up in November, due to the lack of outdoor jobs, such as paving and painting, that cannot be continued in cold weather.
Also, he said sales have been sluggish all year due to the recession, which caused manufacturing inventories to be higher toward the end of the year. As a result, many places will have furloughs during the holidays to better align production and inventories, he said.
In Martinsville and Henry County, the combination of seasonal layoffs due to the cold weather and holiday furloughs due to high inventories probably contributed most to the slight rise in unemployment in November, Mezger said. For these reasons, December’s jobless rate may be slightly higher than November’s, he said, but such trends are relatively normal for the time of year.
Arlington County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate in November at 3.8 percent, according to the VEC. The second highest unemployment was Emporia City, with 13.5 percent in November. Henry County and Petersburg City both had 13.4 percent in November, giving them the third highest unemployment in the state.
Virginia’s unemployment rates continue to remain substantially below the national rates. Virginia’s actual rate of 6.4 percent in November was 3.0 percentage points below the national actual rate of 9.4 percent. The November seasonally adjusted rate of 6.6 percent in Virginia was 3.4 percentage points below the national seasonally adjusted rate for 10.0 percent, according to VEC reports.
Virginia’s actual rate of 6.4 percent is higher than the state’s rate for November 2008, which was 4.6 percent. |
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