Jobless rate hovers around 7%
Preliminary civilian labor force and industry employment estimates for the month of February show another consecutive monthto-month dip in Humboldt County’s unemployment numbers.
The data released on Friday by the California Employment Development Department shows the county’s preliminary unemployment rate at 7% during this period, a dip from December 2020’s 7.4% and January’s then-reported 7.3%.
The dips in civilian unemployment come from a 100 person drop, with a preliminary 4,200 in February of this year. The drop in civilian unemployment numbers follow similar falls of 100 from December 2020 to January and from January to February.
Despite this, February 2021’s civilian unemployment rate of 7% nearly doubles the pre-pandemic
February 2020 period’s rate of 3.8%.
Local employment saw an estimated 800 more people join the workforce across all industry fields, with a month-to-month rise of 1.7% in employment. February estimates register 47,100 employees across all industries compared to January’s reported 46,300.
Farm jobs saw a gain of 100 people entering the industry, ac
In Arizona, Gailen Krug has yet to hold her first grandchild, who was born a month into the pandemic in Minneapolis. Now fully vaccinated, Krug is making plans to travel for her granddaughter’s first birthday in April.
“I can’t wait,” said Krug, whose only interactions with the girl have been over Zoom and FaceTime. “It’s very strange to not have her in my life yet.”
The excitement she feels, however, is tempered with sadness. Her daughter-inlaw’s mother, who she had been looking forward to sharing grandma duties with, died of COVID-19 just hours after the baby’s birth. She contracted it at a nursing home.
Isolated by the pandemic, older adults were hard hit by loneliness caused by restrictions intended to keep people safe. Many of them sat out summer reunions, canceled vacation plans and missed family holiday gatherings in November and December.
In states with older populations, like Maine, Arizona and Florida, health officials worried about the emotional and physical toll of loneliness, posing an additional health concern on top of the virus.
But that’s changing, and more older people are reappearing in public after they were among the first group to get vaccinated.
Those who are fully vaccinated are ready to get out of Dodge without worrying they were endangering themselves amid a pandemic that has claimed more than 540,000 lives in the United States.
“Now there’s an extra level of confidence. I am feeling good about moving forward,” said Ken Hughes, a 79-year-old Florida resident who is flying with his wife for a pandemic-delayed annual trip to Arizona in April.
Plenty of older adults
are eager to hop on a jet to travel. Others are looking forward to the simpler
things like eating at a restaurant, going to a movie theater or playing bingo.