Despite shrinking jobless rate, Oconee jas jobs to fill

Expansions planned by Jantzen, Itron, and Schneider Electric in Oconee mean new jobs and greater economic investment in Oconee County.  Employers who are hiring are shrinking the Oconee County jobless rate.  As economic development recruiter Richard Blackwell was describing Oconee’s jobless rate at 4%–regarded as, in effect, a fully-employed workforce—the state was announcing new unemployment numbers.  For Oconee, in April, those out of work trying for jobs numbered 1,216, or 3.5% of the workforce. Yet Blackwell knows there are jobs to be filled, in both construction and the restaurant sectors of the local economy.