June numbers from the South Dakota Department of Labor paint a bleak picture for the Lake County economy: our unemployment rate here jumped to 7.7%, up from May's 6.9%. 7.7% is the highest unemployment Lake County has seen since January 1992. We have 525 workers running around without jobs, the highest number I can find in the online stats (which go back only to 1990).

How's that compare with the rest of the state?

• The statewide rate stayed flat at 4.9%
• None of the 11 major (micro-)metro areas in the state had unemployment rates above 6%.
• Watertown, which "led" the SD metros in May with 6.9% unemployment, gained 235 workers and 475 jobs to drop its June jobless rate to 5.6%.
• Brookings, that blessed neighboring Shangri-La where our economic development exec sleeps at night, rose to its own 20-year high of 3.8%... but that's still half the Lake County rate.
• Yankton, where Gehl suspended production in April, is still at 5.9%, but that's down a tick from May.
• Moody County had an even worse jump, from 5.2% to 7.4%. Moody actually added 55 jobs last month, but another 105 people beyond that joined their available labor pool. (Uh oh—I can hear the temptation to implement the old California Okie policy: don't let anyone in unless they have jobs lined up!)