(Unemployment up slightly)…The latest numbers for Imperial County were released Friday morning.

They were released by the Labor Market Information Division of the Employment Development Department. The numbers are for January. The jobless rate was estimated at 18.5 percent up from the revised 17.7 percent in December 2018, and above the year ago estimate of 16.9 percent. This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 4.8 percent for the state and 4.5 percent for the nation during the same period. In January there were 13,500 eligible workers unemployed out of a Labor Force of 72,700. Only Colusa County had a higher unemployment rate than Imperial County.