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County Unemployment Rate Up From 2008

Unemployment in Door County has declined from the winter months with the start of the tourist season. However, comparisons to 2008 and previous years show an increase in unemployment – not quite staggering numbers, but a significant increase during months many county residents rely on to make it through the off-season.

Figures from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) show Door County’s May 2009 unemployment rate at 7.6 percent, a 3.4 percent increase from the May, 2008 rate of 4.2 percent. Overall, from January to May 2009, Door County experienced an average of 3.8 percent increase in unemployment over the same period in 2008.

Door County Administrator Mike Serpe said county services are already working at maximum budget and staffing levels. That makes it difficult for those departments to deal with the increase in people who have lost their job, their home, or who are in financial or emotional crisis and need help.

“Palmer Johnson’s Yachts, Bay Shipbuilding and Therma-tron-X are not doing very well presently,” Serpe said, “and that’s of great concern to the county in that we could lag in economic recovery, especially as far as Bay Ship is concerned. If ships aren’t on the Great Lakes, they won’t come in for winter work, and that’s not good for us next winter.

“The demand for county services is going up, our resources from the state are squeezed, so we’re under stress in trying to provide services,” Serpe continued. “We’re in no position to add staff to be responsive to an increasing workload. People are waiting longer for services. It’s going to be a very challenging budget year.”

Though the unemployment rate in Door County and statewide decreased from April to May, the average increase of 3.4 percent in unemployment for the first five months of 2009 has driven people to seek help who would not have needed assistance even two years ago. Gay Pustaver, director of FISC Consumer Credit Counseling Services Inc., the only federally licensed consumer credit counseling service in Door and Kewaunee counties, said she’s set records the past two years for the number of new clients that have come to her for help.

“I have stopped doing introductory sessions because I don’t have time,” Pustaver said.

“We have put packets of information outside of the door for people to pick up when they stop by, because we have such varied office hours,” she said. “I’m so swamped that people have to wait three to four weeks for appointments for credit counseling or for me to work with them on developing financial plans to keep their homes. I’m seeing people now, such as those from the construction companies, that I never would have seen two years ago.”