The rates and numbers are in for Pierce and St. Croix County unemployment, contained in the River Falls City Packet. Appearing on a downward trend, unemployed persons herein are “all persons who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment some time during the 4-week period ending with the reference week,” per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. So what’s the local situation or how bad? That could depend on which side of Division Street (separating Pierce and St. Croix Counties) that you live on.

Starting out May and running through September, October not being presently available, these are unemployment numbers and rates for Pierce and St. Croix Counties.

Starting out the month of May, there were 4,452 unemployment claims filed in Pierce County with a rate of 13.7 percent countywide, while for St. Croix northward the numbers were 10,720 unemployment claims and 13.8 percent respectively.

In June that figure went down somewhat, to 4,397 claims and 10.1 percent in Pierce County, while St. Croix registered 10,222 claims and 9.8 percent unemployment countywide. Come July the numbers stood at 3,186 claims and a rate of just 7.4 percent for Pierce County, while St. Croix also came out to 7.4 percent unemployment with 7,837 claims being made.

For August the numbers continued their downward trend, with 2,652 claims being made and a rate of 5.9 percent in Pierce County, while across the Division Street line St. Croix County registered 6.3 percent and 5,659 unemployment claims. For September the numbers were 2,120 and 4.6 percent for Pierce with St. Croix at 5,260 and 4.8 percent unemployment. The numbers and rate for October were not available to come with previous months. Per the definition of unemployed, those not making active attempts to find work are not counted in the official unemployment rate.

Shifting from unemployment data to other economic fallout, there were two business closures estimated, while June, July, August and September saw zero estimated closures. This changed with October, when there were four business closures estimated from contacts. There were two development review applications received in May with a flatline through September of zero additional applications, while October data was not available. 60 Paycheck Protection Program Loans were approved (not including RCU) based on estimates from banks, for a total of $1,416,597 in approved PPP loan dollars total.