County’s jobless rate still high, but improving slowly

Dickenson County’s jobless rate dropped to 7.6 percent in August, with 359 people identified as unemployed by the Virginia Employment Commission.

That’s an improvement over July, when the jobless rate stood at 9.2 percent, with 442 people listed as unemployed.

The August jobless rate is up from 4.9 percent unemployment at the same time last year.

The county continues to struggle its way back from job losses during the spring as the COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses to shut down. At the peak of the crisis in April, the county registered 12.3 percent unemployment, or 576 people.
It is important to note that official unemployment numbers do not count everyone in the population who lacks a job.

The employment commission defines “unemployed” people as only those who are “actively available and looking for work.” In other words, that means people who are registered with the employment commission as job seekers. People who continue to live here, who need a job but who have given up on finding one, are almost certain not to show up in the jobless rate calculation.

The VEC considers a locality’s “labor force” to be anyone who is employed along with anyone who meets its official definition of “unemployed.” As of August, Dickenson County’s labor force was listed at 4,694 people.

A May 2020 VEC analysis looked at 2019 labor force participation rates — the percentage of a county or city’s population that is in the labor force. Virginia’s lowest participation rates — each at less than 50 percent — were concentrated in the counties of Wise, Lee, Dickenson, Russell, Buchanan and Tazewell, along with Norton and Patrick County.