Jobless claims in 10-county area nearly double in December

The effect of a slumping national economy that shed 2.6 million jobs in 2008 reached Southeast Missouri in December as new applications for unemployment benefits rose 80 percent in a 10-county region.

From the Bootheel to Poplar Bluff to Perryville, layoffs at major companies and a housing construction slowdown put thousands out of their jobs. There is spotty good news -- Sikeston saw a record amount of commercial construction in 2008 and crop prices remain strong. But economic development officials and business leaders, as well as the people who deal directly with the jobless, said the outlook is poor, at least for the short term. In several instances, they said, what seemed to be solid prospects for bringing new employers to the region soured.

The big concern, they said, is that the region may be at the beginning, not the end, of the wave of job losses.

"Without a doubt this is the most serious, and it has been the deepest," Buz Sutherland, director of the Southeast Missouri Economic Development Alliance said of the recession. Sutherland has been working in the field of business development for 35 years.

"I was around in the energy crises of the mid-'70s and late '70s, and that precipitated really slow business development," Sutherland said. "But this is the most serious economic downturn."

The national unemployment rate hit a 16-year high of 7.2 percent in December. Measuring unemployment at the local level can be tricky. The state publishes monthly figures on the work force in each county and the number of people out of work, but the figures can vary widely month to month because of seasonal adjustments.

Using those figures, averaged over the first 11 months of 2008, the unemployment rate for the 10 southeast-most counties in Missouri was 6.2 percent, up from a regional average of 5.7 percent for 2007. The low was 4.5 percent in Perry County, the highest 8.2 percent in Dunklin County. In Cape Girardeau County, the 2008 average unemployment rate was 4.7 percent.

Another measure is the number of people making initial claims for regular or extended unemployment benefits. Unlike the unemployment rate, which is based on a statistical model, figures on unemployment claims reflect individuals applying for assistance.

Using data supplied by the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Southeast Missourian looked back to July 2007 to gauge the change in joblessness. The number of new unemployment claims remained relatively stable, with about 2,200 claims filed in July 2007 and 2,700 filed in July 2008 when extended benefits for long-term unemployed were added. In December, the number of new claims jumped to 4,904.

Several counties had larger increases than the 80 percent regionwide rise from July to December. In Cape Girardeau County, the number of new claims more than doubled. In Mississippi County, the number of new claims rose 159 percent.

The figures are no surprise at the Cape Girardeau Career Center in the Marquette Building on Broadway. The number of people using the center averaged 1,491 from July through November. In December, 2,209 people sought help.

"We are getting in a day what we used to get in a week's time," said Ashleigh Hope, work-force development supervisor at the career center.

Hope has been assisting the unemployed for the state since 1975. "I think this is the worst in all the years I have been doing this," she said.

When a major employer lays off more than 50 workers, it must notify the state. In Southeast Missouri, the Workforce Investment Board triggers its "rapid response" program to help the employees find new jobs or training. Since July 1, the board's staff conducted 30 rapid-response actions in its 13-county region to help 1,467 laid-off workers, said June O'Dell, president of the board.

In a joint interview with Deann Briggs, director of MERS/Goodwill, a Workforce Investment Board contractor, O'Dell said the sheer number of newly unemployed is overloading the system.

In November 2007, 39,000 people statewide received unemployment benefits. By November 2008, the number was 65,000. The state is hiring extra help to handle the new claims and changing the way new and continuing claims are handled.

The state eliminated walk-in centers for filing unemployment claims in the 1990s and telephone claim filing can mean hours of frustrating waits, Briggs and O'Dell said.

"It is frustrating enough that people are willing to drive to Jefferson City to get their claim filed," Briggs said. And, she said, it is frustrating to tell those workers that making the drive will not help because there is no place to file walk-in claims even at the home office of the Division of Employment Security.

"And online filing hasn't been working real well either," Briggs said. "It is the overload the system is not designed to handle."

The first signs of the recession began appearing in 2007. THF Realty of St. Louis, the contractor hired to plan retail development at the new Interstate 55 East Main Street/LaSalle Avenue interchange, postponed indefinitely any activity at the location. Other projects that could have brought jobs to Southeast Missouri have also been put on hold.

"There were a few projects that were essentially put on the sideline until the economy turns around, and it is impossible to put a time frame on that," said Mitch Robinson, executive director of Cape Girardeau Area Magnet, the public-private economic development partnership. "Their folks said we are going to wait until the economy hits bottom. Others out there, however, are continuing to move ahead."

Examples of projects that will continue are expansion plans at both Cape Girardeau hospitals and the opening of Orgill's new hardware distribution center in Sikeston.

For Sutherland, one thought helps ease his concerns: "This too shall pass."

"We are going to come out the other side of this leaner and meaner," he said. "We are going to have that initiation by fire, and nobody likes those."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Coming Monday: How workers are coping with job losses and information on resources for finding employment or training.