Jobless rate inches higher

At a time when the jobless rate has historically dropped in the lakes area because of seasonal employment, July's unemployment rate is already edging back up.

July jobless rates

Unemployment rates for the seven-county area for July and a year ago in July 2009.

Aitkin, 8.6, 9.3.

Cass, 9.2, 8.8.

Crow Wing, 7.7, 8.6.

Mille Lacs, 10.5, 11.5.

Morrison, 7.9, 10.4.

Todd, 7.3, 8.8.

Wadena 9, 10.7.

There are 8,658 people without jobs out of a combined labor force of 103,568 in the seven-county area.

Brainerd's jobless rate inched up from 13 percent in June to 13.6 percent in July, which is still considerably below a high of 20.8 percent recorded in March of 2009.

Going back to 2001, the typical pattern for area jobless rates is to have July dip lower than June and perhaps drop again in August before slowly climbing. A second drop was common in October before the inevitable rise in rates with the onset of winter in December.

In 2008, Brainerd's unemployment rate for July rose from 10.3 percent in June to 10.6 percent in July. Last year, there was a brief drop below 10 percent in September and October before the annual winter climb.

This is the Brainerd's 21st straight month with double-digit jobless rates. There are 1,011 people without jobs in a labor force of 7,432 people.

By comparison, the city of Bloomington has 3,364 people unemployed in a labor force of 48,982. Duluth has 3,486 people without jobs from a labor force of 46,891.

In cities with populations of 10,000 or more, Brainerd continues to have the highest jobless rate in the state. Just three other cities - Bemidji, Grand Rapids and Virginia - out of the 66 on the large city list had jobless rates of more than 10 percent for July. The lowest rates of 4.2 percent were in Moorhead and Marshall.

For the Brainerd micropolitan area, covering Crow Wing and Cass counties, the July jobless rate was 8.2 percent with 3,917 people

without work in a labor force of 47,936. That's compared to a June jobless rate of 8 percent, which was slightly up from May's 7.8 percent.

The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.8 percent for July, unchanged from June. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 9.5 percent, also holding steady from June's numbers.

Cass County at 9.2 percent and Morrison County at 7.9 percent were unchanged from June to July.

The other counties rose from one-tenth of a percent to three-tenths, with Wadena County rising the most from 8.7 percent in June to 9 percent in July.

Most of the region has been seeing the unemployment rate rise since it hit its lowest percent of the year to date in May.

Mille Lacs County is the only one in the area not to drop below 10 percent unemployment so far this year, continuing an unwelcome trend from 2009. Mille Lacs County hasn't been out of double-digit unemployment rates since November of 2008.