By John Raffel
Correspondent
MARION – The Michigan Department of TechnologyManagement and Budget released its February unemployment figures recently and Osceola County was listed at six percent to rank 40th among the states 83 counties.
The figures for other counties were as follows:
Oakland County first at 2.9 percent, Livingston County second at 3.0 percent, Midland County 22nd at 5.1 percent,
Isabella County 35th at 5.6 percent and Wexford County 38th at 5.9 percent.
Not seasonally adjusted jobless rates advanced in six Michigan regions and declined in three labor market areas during February, according to data released by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.
Regional rates remained unchanged in eight areas over the month. “Labor force levels were up across all regions in February,” said Wayne Rourke, labor market information director of the Michigan Center for Data and Analytics in a statement. “Changes in regional unemployment rates were mixed over the month.” Michigan regional unemployment rates ranged from 3.5 to 9.9 percent in February. Six Michigan regions demonstrated jobless rate increases over the month, with a median increase of 0.3 percentage points.
The largest over-the-month increase occurred in the Northeast Lower Michigan region (+0.4 percentage points). Three metro areas exhibited rate decreases since January, with a median decline of 0.4 percentage points. The most pronounced rate decline was in the Lansing metropolitan statistical area (MSA) (-0.7 percentage points).