Knox County shed jobs at record pace to end 2020

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A year and a pandemic later Knox County is shedding jobs again. The over 2,800 initial unemployment claims filed in December and January breaks a record for the largest two-month total of claims in Knox County history, or at least as far back as 1983. While it’s not uncommon for the weakest employment months to come in the winter figures this year are nearly unprecedented. Over 10 percent of Knox County’s labor force has filed for unemployment insurance in the last two months. Unemployment rates got less ugly to finish off 2020, staying below 7 percent in October, November, and December after ratcheting up close to 15 percent in April. Knox County’s unemployment rate was historically low at 4.2 percent last February. A rate that low hadn’t been seen in decades and certainly not since long before manufacturing and employment powerhouses like Maytag and Butler shuttered. The local labor market also has a lot of volatility. Using standard deviation for the number of people working over the last 12 months and there’s an indication that more hiring and firing is going on now than any period on record, other than last spring.

 

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