Jobless Rate

Maryland's unemployment rate in January fell to the lowest level in three years, reflecting an improving economy that spurred the state's employers to add 5,000 jobs during the month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Tuesday. The state's jobless rate dropped to 6.5 percent, nearly 2 percentage points lower than the 8.3 percent national average, preliminary figures for January indicate. It is the fifth straight month that Maryland added jobs and saw an improving jobless rate.

Maryland's unemployment rate in January fell to the lowest level in three years, reflecting an improving economy that spurred the state's employers to add 5,000 jobs during the month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Tuesday. The state's jobless rate dropped to 6.5 percent, nearly 2 percentage points lower than the 8.3 percent national average, preliminary figures for January indicate. It is the fifth straight month that Maryland added jobs and saw an improving jobless rate.

Maryland's unemployment rate jumped sharply in January, as layoffs from Christmas-season jobs and the cold winter weather pushed the state jobless rate to 6.4 percent from December's 5.8 percent.State officials said unemployment rose by 16,430 people in January, bringing the total out of work in Maryland to more than 170,000 workers.But a bright side in the unemployment rate, they said, is that fewer workers than normal left the work force after giving up hope of finding a job soon. When people stop looking for work, they are no longer counted in the unemployment figures.

All good: About 200,000 more jobs added in December, the lowest monthly unemployment rate (8.5 percent) in nearly three years, a front-page declaration that the economy has "gained steam" and the assertion by some employers that "the worst is over. " The most noteworthy job gains were in transportation and warehousing, retail, manufacturing, health care and mining, according to the Department of Labor. All good: Except you have to wonder how much these new jobs pay and what kind of benefits they provide.

Carroll and Queen Anne's were the only counties in the Baltimore area where the unemployment rate fell in August, according to data released Friday by the Maryland Department of Economic and Employment Development.In Carroll, unemployment declined significantly, from 6.1 percent July to 5.3 percent in August, the most recent month for which figures are available.The number of Carroll residents working or seeking work fell to 67,458 in August from 68,333 in July, and the number of people filing for unemployment insurance fell from 4,190 in July to 3,556 in August.

Maryland's unemployment rate leaped nearly a full percentage point in November to the highest level in almost six years, the state reported yesterday in the clearest indication that Maryland is suffering from the effects of the nation's first recession in eight years.The November jobless rate climbed to 5.3 percent from 4.5 percent, where it had remained for four months. It was the highest unemployment rate since January 1985 when unemployment reached 5.5 percent, said Pat Arnold, director of the Office of Labor Market Analysis and Information at the state Department of Economic and Employment Development.

Unemployment in Maryland rose sharply for the second straight month in December, to 6.0 percent from 5.3 percent in November.Unemployment in Baltimore reached almost 10 percent in December, fueled largely by layoffs in auto manufacturing, according to state officials, who said those layoffs boosted the state figures as well.Despite Maryland's reputation for being recession-resistant, the December figures, which are seasonally unadjusted, put the state ahead of the comparable U.S. rate of 5.9 percent for the first time in almost 10 years.

Maryland's unemployment rate inched up to 6.7 percent in September, from 6.6 percent in August.Officials of the state Department of Economic and Employment Development said the increase was caused by a 2 percent seasonal drop in total employment, which fell to 2.45 million in September, from 2.5 million in August.But the drop did not cause a corresponding increase in the unemployment rate because many workers, such as students with summer jobs, did not stay in the work force.In fact, the number of people counted as unemployed actually fell slightly by 0.2 percent, to 175,078, from 175,475.

Numbers released by the state Friday show only one more person was unemployed in the county in February than in January.Carroll's jobless rate held steady in February at 8.5 percent, but still was higher than state and national levels, the Department of Economic and Employment Development reported.On the positive side, the county was the only jurisdiction in themetropolitan Baltimore area where unemployment did not increase, DEED said.Carroll's jobless rate, however, is the highest since January 1984, when unemployment was 8.9 percent, said Theodora Stephen, manager of the DEED office in Westminster.

Unemployment in Maryland fell slightly for the first time in six months as higher seasonal employment in government and in the services and trade industries reduced the March jobless rate to 7.4 percent from 7.5 percent the month before, the state reported yesterday.Most counties' jobless rates fell during the month, but Baltimore unemployment remained at February's 10.6 percent rate, revised downward from the 10.8 percent initially reported, the Maryland Department of Economic and Employment Development said.

As the wire reports say, November's unemployment drop from 9.0 percent to 8.6 percent puts the jobless rate at its lowest point in more than two years. But there are still more than 13 million unemployed folks -- Americans who want to work, have looked for a job in recent weeks and haven't been hired. And that doesn't count the folks who have given up. If you want to work but you're not actively looking for a job, you're not counted as unemployed. Hundreds of thousands seem to have given up looking last month, which is what partly explains the drop in unemployment.

Maryland's unemployment rate improved in October as employers added 3,100 jobs, a bit of good news for residents to chew on heading into Thanksgiving and — retailers hope — holiday shopping. The state's jobless rate dropped to 7.2 percent from 7.4 percent in September, the U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday. The job growth estimates suggest that 60 percent of the net gains came from the private sector in October, with most of the rest coming from state government agencies.

Five of the six largest credit card issuers reported higher delinquency rates --- payments late by at least 30 days --- in September, according to Bill Hardekopf of lowcards.com . These rates had been declining recently, which could mean that consumers are once again struggling to make ends meet. But the issuers were also reporting that charge off rates --- debts deemed uncollectable --- are lower.  I wonder how these data might correlate with the jobless rate , which has been creeping up in Maryland since May. American Express The delinquency rate increased to 1.5 percent in September from 1.4 percent in August.

Maryland's unemployment rate in September continued to inch upward for the fourth straight month, according to U.S. Labor Department data released Friday. But economists saw positive signs in the fact that more people reported that they were in the workforce. The Maryland jobless rate rose to 7.4 percent last month from 7.3 percent in August. This year's low was 6.8 percent in May. Because the jobless rate is based on a survey that asks whether people are employed or looking for work, the increase could indicate that discouraged workers who had been sitting on the sidelines have resumed their job search.

American employers added more jobs than forecast in July and wages climbed. Payrolls rose by 117,000 workers after a 46,000 increase in June that was larger than earlier estimated, the Labor Department said Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for a gain of 85,000. The jobless rate dropped to 9.1 percent as discouraged workers left the labor force. Average hourly earnings climbed 0.4 percent. Faster job gains are needed to bolster consumer spending, which makes up 70 percent of the economy and rose last quarter at the slowest pace in two years.

Where have all the jobs gone? When I was growing up in the 1930s one of my best friends' mothers worked for the ILGWU. Today, few if any know what that acronym stands for (International Ladies Garment Workers Union). She was one of thousands that made New York City the capital of clothes making throughout the United States. How things have changed. While my wife was doing her best to end the recession in a Columbia department store, I wandered through rack after rack of scores of varieties of women's clothing.

WASHINGTON -- In the clearest sign yet that the economy is cooling off, the government reported yesterday that job growth was surprisingly weak in January and that unemployment rose to 5.7 percent.For all practical purposes, the three-tenths of a point rise in the jobless rate last month was the first increase in unemployment in two and a half years. There was an artificial jump, which made comparisons invalid, when a new method of computing the jobless rate was introduced at the beginning of 1994.

Carroll County's 6.8 percent unemployment rate for February showed a slight increase over the 6.5 percent rate for January, but nothing unexpected, a state employment official said."

Maryland's unemployment rate dropped sharply in May as employers added more than 11,000 jobs, marking the third month of gains after a long downward slide. The majority of the new jobs created in the nation last month were temporary positions connected with the U.S. Census Bureau, but Maryland's improved employment situation was apparently less lopsided toward government jobs. The private sector accounted for 4,800 new jobs in Maryland last month out of the 11,200 created, according to preliminary estimates released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Maryland's unemployment rate improved in April for the first time since the recession hit at the end of 2007, a turnaround that came as employers added jobs for the second straight month. The state's jobless rate, which had risen to a 27-year high of 7.7 percent this year, fell to 7.5 percent last month, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday. It estimated that Maryland businesses and agencies created 8,200 jobs in April. That comes on the heels of a huge gain in March — almost 29,000 jobs.