Low jobless rates taken with a grain of caution

The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment unexpectedly dropped last week. Claims are at their lowest levels in months, suggesting the labor market remains solid as the economy is slowing. And, the latest (October’s) numbers show Oconee, Anderson, and Pickens counties with a jobless rate of two percent. As one Oconee leader sees it, “unemployment is a great problem to have.” Yet Zach Hinton, chairman of the Oconee Economic Alliance, says the county must look to education schools to provide the training that some of the workforce will need to avoid being under-employed and to fill important jobs that are hard to fill.