Pioneer PINE CITY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2016
VOL. 131 NO. 49 www.pinecitymn.com $1.00
DRAGONS FLY HIGH: Pine City winter athletics teams off to strong start. P11
Unemployment rate stays low in county BY MIKE GAINOR EDITOR@PINECITYMN.COM
MIKE GAINOR | THE PIONEER
Holiday spirit alive and well in Pine City Hundreds turned out to watch the parade and take part in the Holiday Madness festivities this past Saturday. More Holiday Madness photos on Page 2.
Unemployment fell to the lowest rate of the year in Pine County in October. According to information released last week by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the October 2016 unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 percent, down from 4.3 percent in September and after hitting a high of 8.0 percent in March. Overall, DEED data shows that unemployment in Pine County traditionally rises in winter and early spring, then heads back downwards. The years 2015-16 have continued with that trend, with the unemployment rate hitting a low of 3.8 percent in October 2015, then climbing to 8.0 percent in March 2016, and falling from there to the current low of 4.1 percent in October 2016. Until 2016, the unemployment rate in October has been dropping every year
since an October high of 9.4 percent in 2009. Though the unemployment rate in October 2016 is higher than October 2015, the good news is that it still approaches a historic low: there have been only 10 months total in Pine County where the unemployment rate stood lower than 4.1 percent. The highest recorded Pine County unemployment rate was 16.4 percent in February 1991. The lowest was 3.3 percent in October 2000. In October 2016, Pine County had a labor force of 14,581 with 13,984 employed and 597 unemployed. Pine County’s October unemployment rate of 4.1 percent was higher than the Minnesota rate of 4.0 percent and the United States unemployment rate of 4.9 percent. DEED officials report Minnesota’s labor force participation rate sank to 69.0 percent. This means Minnesota’s overall workforce is more than 40,000 individuals smaller than a year ago.
Pine City remembers Pearl Harbor Everyone who lived through it remembers where they were when they heard the news. Some heard it on the radio. Some heard it shouted from streetcorners by newsboys. Others heard it from family members: walking in the front door of their homes to find their loved ones stunned, wondering what it all meant. For all of them, the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 meant that the world would never be quite the same. Pine City Community Education, in association with the Pine City Pioneer, has been collecting the memories of those who experienced that dark day and all the days that followed. These are their stories. I was at home with family, and heard it on the radio. We were scared to death. We thought the Japanese were bombing all over the U.S. We were just kids and didn’t really know where Pearl Harbor was. Our neighbor, who we all called Grandpa because he was so good to us, just left for Texas that morn-
ing and we were so afraid he would be caught in it. My cousin was already in California in the service and we were afraid he would be in the bombing as the Japanese were thinking about bombing the western states. Food was rationed and we got ration books with stamps when you went to the grocery store. After I was married in 1945 and two sons served in the war during the 1970s One served in Vietnam and I was always worried about him. Some years later we visited the Hawaiian Islands and were shown the place and ships that were bombed. I think it is very important to remember Pearl Harbor, and we should pray every day for peace all over the world. – Irene Lesmeister Sauter Ten-year-old Betty Jean Teich heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor along with her parents on the family farm in rural Pine City while listening to their battery-operated radio. She recalls being SEE PEARL HARBOR, PAGE 17
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Patriotic posters appeared around the U.S. after Pearl Harbor.
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