Employment went down in Carroll County during September -- but so did unemployment, leaving the actual jobless rate of 5.7 percent unchanged since August, state economic officials said Friday.
The seeming paradox of September is related to a large number of people who left the work force in the county -- many because they started school or retired -- and the number of new jobs
created by the start of the school year, said Marco Merrick, a spokesmen at the Maryland Department of Economic and Employment Development.
The statewide unemployment figure of 6.7 percent in September is close to the August rate of 6.6 percent for the same reasons, Mr. Merrick said.
Percentages for the Baltimore metropolitan area, for Western Maryland and for the United States also remained the same or changed one-tenth of a percentage point.
However, rates for the state, regions and Carroll County were higher than in September 1991, when the unemployment rates were 4.8 percent for Carroll and 5.6 percent for Maryland.
Carroll County's labor force -- the number of people working or actively looking for work -- was 64,242 in September, less than
the August figure of 65,944. Mr. Merrick said the decline could be attributed to full-time students who returned to school in September.
The number of employed people in the county stood at 60,606 for September, as compared with 62,168 for August.
Carroll's unemployed numbered 3,636 in September and 3,776 in August.
Mr. Merrick said the department expects that the unemployment rate will rise as winter approaches and the number of construction jobs declines.
"Maybe consumer confidence will go up with the new president elected," he said.
"That could absorb some of the impact."