As winter deepened and snow piles grew, the number of those in the labor pool without jobs also rose in the lakes area. 

City and county unemployment rates for December were released Monday from the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development. 

The jobless rate in Brainerd grew to 16 percent in December, an increase from a rate of 15.3 percent in November. That translates to 1,123 people who are unemployed out of a labor force of 7,037 people. Brainerd’s lowest jobless rate in 2010 was 12.3, reached in May and again in October. The highest was recorded in January at 19 percent. The numbers are lower when compared to 2009 when the rate was 16.7 percent. 

The latest numbers mean the city has posted double-digit unemployment for 26 straight months. To find a time when single-digit jobless rates were seen with regularity means traveling back to 2007. Before the Great Recession, the longest and deepest U.S. economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, officially began in December 2007.  In the early years of the decade, having jobless numbers spike into double digits typically was reserved to hard-core winter months. To get an idea how much of a shift that has been for the city, between April 2004 and December 2006, the Brainerd jobless rate ranged as high as 10.1 or 11.1 three times in 33 months. 

Among the state’s other large cities, 66 with populations more than 10,000, Brainerd stands as king of a mountain, a lofty perch the city would no doubt rather not possess. 

Jobless rates in the other cities were typically in the 5 to 6 percent range. Marshall, with a labor force of 10,333, had the lowest jobless rate at 3.7 percent or 387 people from the labor force without jobs. Other cities with similar populations to Brainerd had half the unemployment rate. Just two other perennial candidates for high unemployment rates, Bemidji and Grand Rapids, had double-digit unemployment. Both were less than 13 percent. 

The Brainerd micropolitan, which has a labor force of 45,288, had a slight jobless rate increase in December to 10.5 percent from 10.1 percent a month earlier. December’s numbers equate to 4,748 people from the micropolitan’s labor force who are unemployed. It’s December numbers nearly mirror the rates from Decembers in 2008 and 2009. 

During the last 10 years, the micropolitan, which includes Crow Wing and Cass counties, didn’t hit double-digit unemployment until December 2008. In 2010, the highest jobless rate for the micropolitan was 12 percent. The lowest was 7.8 percent. There are 16 micropolitans in the state. Brainerd’s has the highest unemployment rate and is the only one in at 10 percent or above. The others in the state ranged from 4.9 percent to 8.8 percent with a number in the 6 and 7 percent range. 

In the seven-county area, the unemployment rate for December rose across the board, but unevenly compared to November. 

• Aitkin County rose to 10.4 percent, up  from 9.5 percent. The county’s labor force is 7,554, meaning 784 are without jobs. This was the first time since March, the county climbed back into double digits. 

• Cass County’s jobless rate rose from 11.5 percent in November to 12.1 percent in December. The county has a labor force of 13,763 with 1,668 jobless. The county’s highest jobless rate for 2010 was 13.6 percent.

• Crow Wing County’s rate rose just slightly from 9.4 percent to 9.8 percent between November and December. The county has a labor force of 31,525 people with 3,080 jobless. December was the county’s ninth straight month below 10 percent. 

• Mille Lacs County jumped from a jobless rate of 10.9 percent in November to 12.3 percent in December. The county has a labor force of 11,966 and 1,466 unemployed. For 2010, the county had one month where the jobless rate wasn’t 10 percent or higher. The county posted the highest jobless rate among the area counties last year at 14.2 percent. 

• Morrison County’s jobless rate also make a significant increase from 8.9 percent in November to 12.3 percent in December. The county has a labor force of 17,846 with 1,858 people without jobs. The county’s highest jobless rate was 12.2 percent in 2010. 

• Todd County’s rate rose from 7.5 percent to 8.2 percent between November and December. The county has a labor force of 12,535 and 1,024 jobless. Of the area counties, Todd County had the lowest jobless rate in 2010 at 6.7 percent in May.

• Wadena County’s unemployment rate rose just slightly from 10 percent to 10.8 percent from November to December with 674 jobless from a labor force of 6,243. Wadena County ranged from a high of 12 percent unemployment to a low of 8.4 percent in 2010. 

Minnesota’s jobless rate for December, seasonally adjusted, was 7 percent or 205,772 people from the labor force of 2.9 million without jobs. That’s a slight decrease from the 7.1 percent in November and October. The state has been in the 7 percent range, going just a little below or above from 6.8 percent to 7.3 percent, throughout 2010. 

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted jobless rate in December was 9.4 percent or 14,485,000 people without jobs from a labor force of 153,690,000. Nationally the December rate is a drop from the 9.8 percent posted in November and represents the lowest rate in all of 2010. The highest was 9.9 percent in April.

RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.