The Trend: Kalamazoo County continues to rebound gaining over 7,700 jobs from Q2 2020 to Q3 2020. Between December 2020 to January 2021, the unemployment rate rose by 1.4 percentage points. The rise in unemployment combined with a slightly increasing labor force participation rate from December 2020 to January 2021 suggests individuals are once again looking for jobs. However, a decreased employment to population ratio suggests that hiring may be lagging. This could be for a variety of reasons, for example, there may be a mismatch between job seekers and the skills employers need, or there may still be some barriers, such as transportation or childcare, for individuals to obtain the employment opportunities available. Unfortunately, the data available does not provide the cause for this lag. Job postings were higher in January 2021 than December 2020, with an increase in manufacturing postings.
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