WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. – Whatcom County’s unemployment rate showed some improvement in May but was still sky-high because of the COVID-19 shutdown.

The Employment Security Department reports 15.7% of the local workforce was idle last month, down from April’s rate of 17.7%.

By comparison, we had a 4.7% unemployment rate in May 2019.

The good news from the report is that almost 2500 people in Whatcom County who were unemployed in April were working in May.