HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Preliminary unemployment rates for April 2020 released by the Michigan’s Department of Technology, Management & Budget show a significant increase in unemployment rates in every county due to the impacts of COVID-19.
Ottawa County’s unemployment rate jumped from 2.4 percent in March to 21.2 percent in April, in large part the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and “stay home” rules responding to the virus.
April’s rate for Ottawa County is the highest since data were first reported in 1976. Throughout Michigan, county unemployment rates ranged from 14.5 percent to 41.2 percent in April.
Ottawa County had some of the lowest unemployment figures of any of Michigan’s 83 counties for much of the last two years.
