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No one at the Virginia Employment Commission has any definite answer to why the county’s unemployment rate increased so dramatically in December. '
Across much of the state the rate dropped in December.
Marie Hammer, job service manager at the Culpeper office, said they had guesses as to what might have caused the increase. She said mild weather might have kept construction workers at work longer in the year than usual and might also account for workers in tourism working through November and then being laid off in December. The rate is based on a date near the middle of the month, she said.
Surrounding counties did not experience anything like the sharp increase in unemployment that affected Rappahannock. The county’s unemployment rate was 11.7 percent, compared to 4.2 percent in Culpeper, 2.8 percent in Fauquier, 2.9 percent in Madison and 4.6 percent in Orange.
The overall unemployment rate for PD-9 was 4.1 percent, for Virginia 4.4 percent and for the nation 5.1 percent.
According to VEC statistics, in Rappahannock County in December there were 4,118 people employed and 546 unemployed out of a workforce of 4,656.
In September, before the closing of the Aileen plant affected the county’s unemployment rate there were 4,643 people employed and 120 unemployed out of a work force of 4,763 and an unemployment rate of 2.5 percent.
In October the work force dropped slightly to 4,752, those employed dropped to 4,518, and the unemployed increased to 234 for an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent,.
The November figures showed a decrease in the work force to 4,590 with 4,363 employed and 227 unemployed. The unemployment rate remained the same at 4.9 percent.
The December figures represent an increase in the workforce over the November numbers and a dramatic increase in the unemployed with a decrease in the number employed.
When compared to December a year ago, all figures are up. In December 1993 VEC reported there were 2,941 people unemployed and 106 unemployed out of a work force
93.6%