PORT ANGELES – Unemployment in Clallam County jumped up nearly one and a half percent in January.

According to figures released Tuesday from the state Employment Security Department, January’s unemployment rate was 7.4 percent. That’s up from December’s six percent. But it is still a full percent lower than January of 2019.

Clallam County’s labor force has increased by more than 13-hundred people since January of last year and the number of people employed has gone up by nearly 15 hundred people in the past year as well.

Jefferson County has an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent in January, while the statewide rate was at 4.4 percent.