St. Croix County’s Unemployment Rate for May Falls to 4.9%

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) announced the preliminary May 2012 unemployment rates for Wisconsin’s 72 counties on June 20th. St. Croix County’s rate was estimated at 4.9% compared to the April rate of 5.3% and the March rate of 6.2%. One year ago, the county’s unemployment rate was estimated at 5.4%.

DWD said 69 counties had rate declines or no change compared to a year ago Between April and May, 36 had rate declines, including a decline of 2.2 percent in Vilas and 2.0 percent in Bayfield Six counties had no change from April to May. Of Wisconsin’s 32 municipalities with a population of least 25,000 residents, 30 had either declines or no change in unemployment rates year over year. From April to May, 11 of the 32 municipalities had either declines or no change in rates, while 21 experienced increases.

Only two counties, Dane and Pierce, had lower unemployment rates than St. Croix in May. The lowest rate in the state was in Dane (4.7%, but up slightly from April’s rate of 4.4%), followed by Pierce (also at 4.7%), St. Croix (4.9%), Calumet (5.1%), and La Crosse (also at 5.1%). Menominee (15.1%) had the highest unemployment rate in the state, followed by Iron (11.1%), Sawyer (9.3%), Bayfield (also at 9.3%), and Rusk (9.2%).

“It has been some time since St. Croix’s unemployment rate has been below five percent,” said William Rubin, executive director of St. Croix Economic Development Corporation. “Pierce County, our neighbor to the south, beat us out for the honors as having the second-lowest unemployment rate in the state. Both counties are included in the nation’s sixteenth largest metro area, and residents and businesses alike enjoy many advantages with this alignment, including a strong labor shed across the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The challenge ahead is to keep the rate below five percent.”

St. Croix, Pierce, Polk, and Dunn counties comprise Wisconsin’s Greater St. Croix Valley. Pierce County’s unemployment rate for May was 4.7% (down from April’s rate of 5.1% and even lower than March’s rate of 6.3%). Polk’s rate decreased from 8.1% in April to 7.8% in May (the March rates was 8.1%). Dunn County’s unemployment rate in May was 5.7%, up slightly from the April rate of 5.6%, but lower than the March rate of 6.8%. All four counties have lower unemployment rates year over year.

The 13-county Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington MN-WI metro area reported an unemployment rate of 5.2% in May, up slightly from 5.1% in April but lower than the March rate of 6.1%. One year ago, the unemployment rate in the Twin Cities was 6.1%.

The preliminary (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate for Wisconsin in May was estimated at 6.8%, up slightly from April’s rate of 6.7%. The March rate for Wisconsin was also at 6.8%. One year ago, the state’s seasonally adjusted rate was 7.6%.

The preliminary (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate in Minnesota for May was estimated at 5.6 %, which is unchanged from the April rate, but lower than March’s rate of 5.8%. Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted rate was 6.6% one year ago.

The preliminary (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate in the U.S. in May was estimated at 8.2%, also up slightly from the April rate of 8.1%. The March rate in U.S. was 8.2%. One year ago the U.S. rate was estimated at 9.0%.

May’s estimates are preliminary and are subject to revision within the next few weeks.