St. Louis unemployment figure even gloomier than first reported

As we reported in Wednesday’s paper, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said this week that the unemployment rate in St. Louis hit 7.3 percent in November. But that figure doesn’t include seasonal variations that allow for good month-to-month comparison.

This morning, our friends at the St. Louis Fed supplied us with the seasonally-adjusted data, and the picture got even worse. Taking those variations into account, unemployment in St. Louis hit 7.7 percent. That’s the highest rate since June, 1985, and a sharp jump from October’s 7.3 percent figure.

Jobs evaporated, too. The region lost 3,500 jobs in the month, down to 1,341,900 , the lowest level since Dec. 2005.

December numbers for St. Louis are due out in a few weeks, but news today that the national unemployment figure climbed to 7.2 percent doesn’t bode well - our region has been running ahead of the national average for quite some time - and a slew of recent layoffs at companies from Anheuser-Busch to steel mill Granite City Works will be added to the tally.