Unemployment rates improve in Guadalupe County

Dalondo Moultrie The Seguin Gazette

Though not yet back to where they were in the early part of the year, Guadalupe County unemployment numbers continue to see improvement.

Introduction of the novel coronavirus and a pandemic devastated the local economy and brought massive numbers of unemployment claims, Adrian Lopez, CEO of Workforce Solutions Alamo, said. But slowly the local numbers continue to look better, he said.

“Guadalupe County actually is moving in the right direction,” Lopez said. “Where they were in the September timeframe, they were at 6.2%. So, it’s been reduced to 5.1%. That’s a good thing.”

For the month of October, Guadalupe County’s unemployment rate fell to 5.1%, which amounted to 4,163 people actively looking and available for work, according to Workforce Solutions Alamo estimates.

The county’s unemployment rate fell from 6.2% in February. Workforce Solutions Alamo’s 13-county district for October managed an unemployment rate of 6.2% and that of the state of Texas hovered around 6.7%, according to the data.

The numbers give a snapshot of the economy and availability of jobs in the region and the county, Lopez said.

“In any case, if you saw that 15,000 people lost their jobs in your county over the course of the last few months and now you’re down to 4,163 that are looking for jobs, you can reasonably say a good portion of them have gone back to work,” he said. “You can also say some have lost their jobs and decided not to” go back to work or seek employment.

Circumstances could lead a jobless person to not seek further employment, Lopez said. For instance, if someone’s child is involved in remote learning, they can’t leave the child at home alone so maybe they stay without trying to find another job. Or, Lopez said, daycare might be unavailable during the pandemic leading a parent, again, to decide against trying to reenter the workforce.

National numbers show the unemployment rate in the United States for October at about 6.9%, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bureau said 6.9% is a national improvement of 1 percentage point, and that reflects continued resumption of economic activity that curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Unemployment rates declined among all major worker groups in October,” read a Bureau of Labor Statistics press release. “Among the unemployed, the number of persons on temporary layoff fell by 1.4 million to 3.2 million. This measure is down considerably from the high of 18.1 million in April but is 2.4 million higher than in February.”

According to Workforce Solutions Alamo, the city of Seguin’s unemployment rate for October dropped to 5.9% from 7.5% a month earlier. The city had 804 people actively looking and available for work.

The city’s numbers are encouraging, Lopez said.

“One of the things that [I noticed] about a month or so ago, y’all still have a very robust manufacturing industry,” he said. “There are still companies that are moving to that area.”

Dalondo Moultrie is the assistant managing editor of the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail him at dalondo.moultrie@seguingazette.com

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