St. Croix County's Unemployment Rate Dips Slightly from Summer

ST. CROIX COUNTY -- Preliminary August 2016 unemployment rates for Wisconsin show that St. Croix County’s rate has steadily declined over the last few months, but is up compared with the same time last year.

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development estimated St. Croix County's unemployment rate for August 2016 at 3.5%. For comparison, St. Croix’s final rate for July was 3.6% and June’s final rate was 3.9%.

One year ago, the county’s unemployment rate was estimated at 3.4%.

DWD said preliminary unemployment rates for August decreased or remained the same in 65 of the 72 counties compared to August 2016, and decreased or remained the same in 66 of the counties when compared to July 2016 rates.

The current rates ranged from 2.8% in Dane County to 8.6% in Menominee.

The July 2016 preliminary unemployment rates decreased or stayed the same in 25 of Wisconsin’s 32 municipalities with population bases of least 25,000 residents compared to August 2015. The July 2016 rates ranged from 2.6% in Fitchburg to 6.7% in Racine. Dane County had the lowest rate in August at 2.8% followed by Iowa (2.9%), Lafayette (also at 2.9%), Green (3.1%) and Pepin (also at 3.1%). Menominee County had the highest rate in August at 8.6%, followed by Iron (7.0%), Forest (6.1%), Bayfield (5.8%), and Sawyer (5.6%).

St. Croix and Pierce counties are included in the 16-county Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington MN-WI metro area. The August 2016 unemployment rate for the Twin Cities was estimated at 3.6% which is higher than July’s final rate of 3.5%, but lower than June’s final rate of 3.8%. The unemployment rate in the Twin Cities was 3.2% in August 2015.

The preliminary (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate in the U.S. for August was estimated at 4.9%, which is the same as the final rates for July and for June. One year ago the U.S. rate was estimated at 5.1%.

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