MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the month of October dropped more than two percentage points to 6.4% and the number of 18,100 state residents found jobs.
October marked the sixth consecutive month of improving unemployment numbers in West Virginia. Plus, the state’s jobless rate was lower than that of the entire country which stood at 6.9% in October.
“Before the pandemic hit, we were churning out the best unemployment rates and total job numbers that West Virginia had seen in over a decade,” Gov. Jim Justice said in a statement. “There’s no doubt that the pandemic was like a cannonball to the stomach. But I’m encouraged to see that, month after month, our job numbers continue to improve and are trending back toward where they were before. But we won’t stop there, we want to continue to get better and better.”
Unemployment in Monongalia County was 4.1% last month, compared with 5.8% in September. Preston County, meanwhile, has a jobless rate of 4.4% last month, compared with 6.1% in September. Marion County’s jobless rate was 5.7%, down from 8% in the previous month.
“It’s definitely trending in the right direction,” said Russ Rogerson, president and CEO of the Morgantown Area Partnership. He credits WVU Medicine, Mon Health, and Mylan for keeping the local economy strong…
To read more: https://www.dominionpost.com/2020/11/25/unemployment-drops-in-w-va/
