WELL-EDUCATED AREA WORK FORCE FACTOR IN LOW UNEMPLOYMENT

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Cape Girardeau County employment officials may still be wondering what happened in February 1990, but they are pleased with overall employment totals for last year.

"We had 95.8 percent employment during the month of December," said Jackie Cecil, manager of the Missouri Job Service Office here. "For the year, our average employment rate was 95.6. That's not bad. We're pleased with those totals."

Cecil is at a loss to explain what happened in February 1990. Last January's unemployment rate was 4.8 percent, but the February rate soared to 6.2 percent.

"We may have had some shutdowns for new-model work," said Cecil. "But it is difficult to imagine the rate going up more than one full percentage point."

The unemployment rate in the county dropped to 4.1 percent last March.

With almost 96 percent employment, more than 33,400 people had jobs in Cape County last year. The county has a work force of 34,851 people.

The county's unemployment rates for December and 1990 were under state totals.

Employment gains in December helped offset some increases in unemployment as Missouri closed out 1990 with an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent, said Donna M. White, director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The December rate represented a small increase from November, but an estimated 2,486,739 Missourians were working, an increase of 3,000 over the November total.

Preliminary data indicates Missouri's average annual unemployment rate in 1990 was 5.7 percent, up from the average of 5.5 percent in 1989. Figures also indicate that average employment was 2,483,000, an increase of 12,000 over 1989.

White said the December employment report can be attributed to 6,100 auto workers returning to work that month and an increase in retail employment because of the holiday season.

Both state and Cape County employment figures could drop in January. Said Cecil: "We have a lot of extra holiday retail employment. Once the holiday sales are over, some of those jobs are eliminated for a while."

The lowest Cape County unemployment rates were in May and June, when they were 3.5 and 3.9 percent, respectively.

Only one county in the immediate Southeast Missouri area experienced a downturn in unemployment in December. Perry County, which recorded 5.6-percent unemployment in November, dropped to 5.2 in December.

"We usually have one of the lower unemployment rates in the state," Cecil said of Cape County's rates. "Over the past couple of years we've had good weather in November and December, allowing more construction and agricultural jobs.

"We've been consistent in our employment figures for a number of years," said Cecil. "Looking at the 1990 totals, we hit the 5-percent unemployment mark only twice: that being February at 6.2 and July at 5. The rest of the time we ranged between 3.5 and 4.8."

The Cape Girardeau Job Service Office serves Cape, Perry and Bollinger counties.

In Southern Illinois, two of the three southernmost counties recorded declines in unemployment in December.

Union County recorded a drop from 12 percent to 8.9 percent and Pulaski dropped from 13 percent to 11.9 percent. The unemployment rate in Alexander County, which typically has one of the highest rates of Southern Illinois counties, was up only slightly, from 15.1 percent in November to 15.2 percent in December.

Illinois' statewide unemployment figure for December remained even with November totals, at 5.9 percent.

Charles M. Vessell, labor market economist for the Illinois Department of Employment Security at Harrisburg, said, "We had some recalls by area manufacturing firms in December, especially in the southernmost counties."

Williamson and Franklin counties' employment rates remained steady, said Vessell. "In this region the effects of weather-related layoffs were somewhat negated by the fact that some major construction projects are under roof," he said.

Christmas hiring also helped to soften the increase in unemployment, he said. "Meanwhile, some of the other counties experienced the expected upswing in employment that comes with inclement weather," he said.

The nation's unemployment rate in December showed only a tenth of a percent increase, from 5.8 in November to 5.9 in December. A year ago in December, the unemployment rate was 5.1 percent.

Following are unemployment rates for counties in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois, with December figures first, followed by November figures and December 1989 figures.

Southeast Missouri

Bollinger: 9.6, 9.5, 8.3.

Butler: 7.1, 6.7, 7.5.

Cape Girardeau: 4.2, 4.0, 4.2.

Madison: 11.7, 9.2, 7.1.

Mississippi: 13.8, 9.8, 7.6.

New Madrid: 10.4, 9.3, 7.6.

Pemiscot: 13.1, 8.0, 7.8.

Perry: 5.2 5.6, 5.0.

Scott: 7.7, 7.2, 6.5.

Stoddard: 10.4, 8.4, 7.8.

Missouri: 6.1, 6.0, 5.6.

Southern Illinois

Alexander: 15.2, 15.1, 13.1.

Pulaski: 11.9, 13.0, 12.5.

Massac: 7.5, 8.0, 8.7

Union: 8.9, 12.0, 11.7.

Jackson: 6.6, 5.5, 7.5.

Randolph: 7.8, 6.9, 9.5.

Williamson: 8.6, 8.9, 9.5.

Johnson: 10.0, 8.9, 11.9.

Illinois: 5.9, 5.9, 6.1.

Nation: 5.9, 5.8, 5.1.