City has nations lowest jobless rate
Morgantowns unemployment is 2.7 percent
BY TRACY EDDY The Dominion Post
Its official Morgantown is number one!
The latest data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the citys unemployment rate is 2.7 percent, making it the lowest unemployment rate in the nation (based on December 2008 data).
Were used to having the lowest unemployment rate in West Virginia, said Don Reinke, director of the Monongalia County Development Authority. And now to have the lowest unemployment rate in the nation its remarkable.
Reinke said one reason Morgantown is doing so well is because it is home to such a diversified economy that includes WVU; manufacturers, such as Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.; health care employers, such as Monongalia General Hospital and WVU Hospitals; as well as government employees.
Those jobs are what he calls recession-resistant.
Those people will keep their jobs regardless of the national trends, Reinke said. People are still going to go to the doctor. Youngsters are still going to need to be educated and want to go after their higher education degree.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate is 7.1 percent an increase from December 2007 when it was 4.8 percent.
Logan, Utah, has the second lowest unemployment rate in the country at 2.8 percent.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics took data from 369 metropolitan areas. Unemployment rates in 363 areas were higher in December 2008 than they were a year earlier.
There are 153 metropolitan areas in the U.S. that have unemployment rates higher than the national unemployment rate, according to the data.
City Manager Dan Boroff said the citys economic partnerships are what keeps it so strong.
WVU, the citys hospitals and health care system, the government and the private sector have all worked together and have invested in the city, he said. Boroff cited the riverfront development along the Monongahela River as an example of that cooperation.
In Morgantown we are very, very fortunate to have a strong and integrated economic base, he said. But we are not immune from the national problems. There are people in Morgantown who are losing money in their retirement and savings accounts. Local businesses with national and international markets are feeling the effects. We need to continue the cooperation and be attentive and not take anything for granted.
Morgantown is not recessionproof as some have said, Reinke said, because the term suggests the city is immune to whats happening across the U.S.
We are not immune to the recessionary pressures, he said. We might fair better than most communities and not be hit as hard as most communities, but were not immune. As the year goes on, I think well see the unemployment rate tick up, but well maintain our position of having a relatively low unemployment rate in the state and the nation.
Cassidy Canzani, an economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, previously explained to The Dominion Post that the unemployment rate represents the percentage of unemployed individuals in the entire labor force.
Employed people are defined as all people who did at least one hour of work as paid employees; worked in their own business, profession, or on their own farm; or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family, she said.
Canzani said people who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, bad weather, childcare problems, maternity or paternity leave, labor management dispute, job training, or other family or personal reasons are also counted as employed, whether or not they were paid for their time off.
Unemployed people are defined as all people who had no employment but were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment, she said.
The labor force is all people who are classified as employed or unemployed, Canzani said.
