Martinsville Unemployment Breaks Tultex Record

Breaking news over at the Martinsville Bulletin tonight:

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer

Martinsville’s jobless rate in February reached a record 20.2 percent, the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced today.

The city again has the highest unemployment rate in the state, a distinction it held for many months before Williamsburg’s jobless rate hit 19.5 percent in January, VEC statistics show.

Martinsville’s previous unemployment record was 19.6 percent, set in December 1999 due to Tultex’s closing.

Unemployment rates for Henry and Patrick counties were not immediately available.

Further details on local jobless rates will be reported in the Martinsville Bulletin on Thursday.

Sadly, I can't say this surprises me. I was chatting with a local business owner today and we both noticed the same thing: Southside has known the economy was in trouble for a long, long time. A year or so ago, when the Dow was up and the media was telling us how great everything was, we were very puzzled as to what exactly they were talking about; we sure as hell didn't see what they did. Now that we're running to the lifeboats, it's almost amusing to see the talking heads suddenly get it after years of steaming toward the iceberg.