Giles County was the only locality in the New River Valley, which saw its jobless rate fall during the month of May, while other counties throughout the area saw an increase.

During the latest figures for the Month of May, which was just released, Giles County fell from 4.4 percent in April to 4.2 percent in May. According to the Virginia Unemployment Commission, 352 people were out of work in the county.

Radford jumped from 4 percent in April to 5.1 percent in May to record one of the highest increases in the area. There were 368 people unemployed in Radford during May.

Pulaski County also saw a large increase in its unemployment rate. With 851 people unemployed in the county, Pulaski saw its May rate rise to 4.7 percent compared to 4.1 percent the previous month.

In Montgomery County, the unemployment rate rose to 3.6 percent compared to 3.3 percent in April. There were 1,565 people unemployed in Montgomery County.

Virginia’s unadjusted May unemployment rate of 3.8 percent was still well below the national unadjusted May 2008 unemployment rate of 5.2 percent. The Virginia 3.8 percent May 2008 rate was 1.0 percentage point higher than the 2.8 percent Virginia May 2007 jobless rate.

Among Virginia’s 134 individual counties and cities in May 2008, Arlington County, at 2.5 percent, had the lowest unemployment; and Martinsville city, at 10.5 percent, was the highest and the only jurisdiction with double-digit unemployment. No Virginia jurisdiction met the labor shortage criteria of 2.0 percent, or less, unemployment in May 2008.

June usually sees a further rise in unemployment as high school youth join college students already in the summer labor force. June is often the highest month for unemployment in Virginia because of all the young people. The summer job market is good this year, but not as good as it was the last two summers, according to Bill Mezger, chief economist with the Virginia Employment Commission.

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