Mixed Messages

Montgomery County’s unemployment rate hit a near four-year low in April, but the news may not be all good.

With only 260 people receiving unemployment benefits, Montgomery County reported a 5.2 jobless rate in April, just slightly higher than the state mark of 5.1, according to Iowa Work Force.

The last time Montgomery County’s unemployment rate was this low was in October 2008, at 4.9 percent.

By the following March, TRACO had closed and the economy crashed locally and nationally in the midst of a historic recession as unemployment more than doubled to 9.9 percent.

Since the opening of DirecTV’s call center in the former CDS Global building, Montgomery County’s jobless rate has slowly dropped each month, hitting a new low in April.

And while the number of people receiving jobless benefits is the same as it was in October 2008 (260), the number of people actually working isn’t.

Currently, only 4,620 people are working in the county compared to 5,070 in October 2008, a drop of nearly nine percent.

By comparison, when unemployment was at its highest in March 2009 at 9.9 percent, 4,780 people were working, or three percent more than today.

Montgomery County’s current workforce is 4,870 according to Iowa Workforce, which is the lowest monthly total of the 21st century.

The workforce total peaked at 6,240 in February 2001, when unemployment was 5 percent and 5,930 people had full-time jobs in the county.

The total workforce was as much as 6,070 in January 2006, or nearly 20 percent more than it is today.

Darrell Steven Carlyle, Executive Director for the Red Oak Chamber and Industry Association, said the county’s workforce shrunk with the closing of major employers such as RO-MECH and Tra-Co, and has never recovered.

“Unfortunately since we lost several large industries in our community, we lost labor force. What that means is they have relocated from the community,” he said. “What we are trying to do is build both the labor force numbers back by recruiting industries to our community and to preserve the unemployment rate.”

State Different

While the workforce may be smaller and fewer people working in Montgomery County, the same doesn’t hold true for the state of Iowa.

With unemployment at 5.1 percent, down from 5.9 a year ago, the total number of working Iowans increased to 1,578,200 in April from 1,575,700 in March.  The current level is 12,100 higher than the April 2011 figure of 1,566,100.

“Iowa’s recovery made further progress in April as the unemployment rate dropped for the fourth consecutive month and job growth occurred across several industry sectors,” said Teresa Wahlert, director of Iowa Workforce Development.  “Job growth in the state’s construction industry has been particularly strong in 2012, signaling a turnaround in an industry that was adversely affected by the housing downturn.”