Local Unemployment Rate Declines Again in December

Belleville’s unemployment rate declined in December by more than half a percentage point, mirroring a national trend.

According to preliminary figures released by the Department of Labor earlier this month, Belleville’s unemployment rate in December was 9.9 percent, down from 10.5 percent in November.

That’s also a substantial drop from a year earlier, in December 2009, when the township had an unemployment rate of 11.3 percent.

The figures show that Belleville had 18,050 residents in the workforce, of whom 16,258 were employed and 1,792 were seeking work.

The township’s December unemployment rate was lower than for Essex County as a whole, where 10.2 percent of the workforce was looking for work.

The local figures were released as the Department of Labor reported that January’s national unemployment fell to 9 percent, a two-year low. That drop in unemployment, however, came even though the economy added a mere 36,000 jobs, far below the number needed to keep up with population growth.

Experts have said that the combination of reduced unemployment with weak job growth is at least partly attributable to a significant number of people giving up their job searches. People who are no longer actively seeking work are not counted among the unemployed.