Colusa unemployment ranks highest in state

Three Mid-Valley counties saw their unemployment rates increase to more than 20 percent in January, according to figures released by the state Employment Development Department today.

Colusa County was the highest of the three at 27.4 percent, ranking it the highest in the state. Sutter County's unemployment rate was 21.0 and Yuba County's was 20.4. The data was not seasonally adjusted.

There were 8,800 unemployed in Sutter County, 5,800 in Yuba County and 3,220 in Colusa County. State-wide, there were nearly 2.4 million unemployed workers in January, according to EDD data. The state unemployment rate increased to 13.2 percent.

Only three counties in the state had unemployment rates less than 10 percent in January. Mono County had the lowest rate, at 8.1 percent.