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County's jobless rate tops state average

When domestic manufacturing employment declines, the United States sneezes, Michigan gets a bad cold and St. Joseph County suffers pneumonia.

David H. Allen, executive director of the St. Joseph County Economic Development Corp., recently told county Republicans that while the U.S. depends upon manufacturing for 13 percent of jobs, Michigan's manufacturing employment base is 23 percent, jumping to 42 percent in St. Joseph County. Read More - Sturgis Journal

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St. Joseph County's unemployment rate dropped during the month of April by a significant amount according to the Michigan Department of Labor. Jobless rates in the county fell from 7.1 percent in April of 2003 to a recorded 5.5 percent this past April. The unemployment rate has been hovering around the 7 percent mark locally since the first of the year. The level statewide in April was 6 percent. Some 1,650 workers without jobs for the 5.5 percent rate that averages 6.7 percent since the first of the year. The state labor report does not include some one hundred layoffs recently announced by American Axle & Manufacturing in Three Rivers, St. Joseph County's largest employer.

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