JOBS: 95.9 PERCENT EMPLOYMENT REPORTED IN CAPE COUNTY

More people are working these days in Cape Girardeau County and the state of Missouri.

"More than 36,000 people had jobs in Cape County in December," said Jackie Cecil, director of the Missouri Job Service office at Cape Girardeau. "That figures to 95.9 percent of our work forces."

The work forces will fluctuate slightly from month to month. The December work force totaled 37,944 workers, with 36,344 of them working.

"That compares favorably with November figures when we had 37,682 workers with 36,045 of them working, for a 95.8 employment rate.

"We've been fortunate in this area," said Cecil. "We haven't had any big layoffs and we've had a good run of new businesses for the last five or six months, with several new restaurants, one new supermarket and the Wal-Mart Superstore."

The Wal-Mart Superstore, located near the Route K/Interstate 55 intersection, is expected to open this month.

Cape County's unemployment rate of 4.1 percent is the lowest in the Southeast Missouri area. Perry County, with a 4.8 percent unemployment rate, is second on the list.

Mississippi County saw its unemployment rate rise from 9.9 percent in November to 14.2 percent in December, but one of the highest rates in the region is that of Madison County, which had a 1.9 percent increase in jobless, from 15.1 percent in November to 17 percent in December.

Both Madison and Mississippi counties suffered job losses from closures of shoe factory operations. In addition, a manufacturing plant closed at East Prairie in Mississippi County.

Missouri's statewide unemployment rate in November dropped to 5.9 percent, the lowest monthly level in 1991, according to the Donna M. White, director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

After rising to 7.1 percent in June, the statewide figure dropped to 6.6 percent in July; 6.8 percent in August; 6.4 percent in October and 6.1 percent in November.

The December rate is down from the 6.1 percent rate and also down from the 6 percent rate of December 1990.

Estimates by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that 2,545,905 workers had jobs in Missouri during December, up from the 2,517,000 employment totals in November.

"The December employment estimate is the second highest on record in Missouri," said White. "Only in April of 1991, when estimated total employment was 2.551 million, have there been more people with jobs during a month."

White added that with employment on the increase, joblessness in Missouri decreased for a second consecutive month. "Unemployment levels dropped from 171,744 in October to 164,897 in November to an estimated 160,983 in December."

Over-the-year increases have been recorded in services employment, with 9,800 more jobs in 1991. Other large increases occurred in health services.

Sullivan County had the lowest unemployment rate of 2.9 percent while Iron County and Madison counties had highest totals at 17.1 and 17 percent respectively.

Unemployment rates were up in every Southern Illinois county.

"A weakened state economy continues to make its presence felt in Southern Illinois," said Charles M. (Mike) Vessell, labor market economist for the Illinois Department of Employment Security at Harrisburg. "Every county in deep Southern Illinois except one Hardin County at 9.2 percent recorded double-digit unemployment rates."

He added that many holiday job seekers who had entered the job market in late November and early December were now on unemployment status.

"Those workers, along with layoffs from the mining, construction and related industries attributed to the high unemployment figures," added Vessell.

"Many of these counties are low population areas. It doesn't take many layoffs to drive the jobless rates up."

Alexander, Pulaski and Union counties are among the five highest unemployment counties in Southern Illinois. Alexander, at 19.5 percent, and Pulaski, at 17.6 percent, were numbers three and five on the high jobless list, with Union number seven, at 16 percent.

Hamilton County, with more than one-fourth of its work force unemployed, topped the unemployment list at 27.5 percent, up 2 percent from November totals and up more than 12 percent from December of a year ago.

The jobless rate also climbed in every metropolitan area of Illinois in December.

Figures show the jobless rate exceeded the statewide unemployment figure of 9.2 percent in 80 of Illinois' 102 counties. Illinois had the highest December jobless rate of any of the 11 largest industrial states.

Employment rose from 8.3 to 9 percent in Cook County, soared from 9 to 10.3 percent in Will County and 8.8 percent to 10 percent in Kane County.

"Looking at counties outside the Chicago area is really the story," said Loleta Didrickson, director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security. "Eighty-eight Illinois employers - most in manufacturing, trade, transportation and government services - reported layoffs of 50 or more workers in December."

The highest jobless rate in a metropolitan area was in the Kankakee area, where 11.5 percent of workers were unemployed in December compared to 10 percent in November.

Joblessness was 11 percent in the Decatur area, up from 10.7 percent and was 10.9 percent in the Davenport Rock Island-Moline area, up from 9.2 percent. Unemployment in the Joliet area hit 10.7 percent, up from 9.1 percent and the area Danville saw joblessness reach 13.4 percent from 11.9 percent.