Unemployment dropping on the shore

Over the past six months counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland have seen a steady decline in the unemployment rate according to state statistics.

In Wicomico County the jobless rate dropped from 8.3 percent  down to 6.3 percent from February to July. County executive Bob Culver credits the decline to an increase in development. Culver credits the increase in development to putting a moratorium on the Educational Impact Fee, a fee of more than $5,000 for building new single family homes, $1,500 for other residential properties that money collected would go toward school capacity projects.

Culver said because construction companies do not have to pay that fee, the county has become a more attractive place to build.

“The way I looked at it every house will create at least five or six new jobs from the carpenter crews, plumbing crews, electrical crews, painting on down the line. So all that has helped build the workforce back up,” Culver said.

Meanwhile in Worcester County, officials say unemployment rates fluctuate every year because of the added business that comes to the county during the summer season and the months immediately before and afterward.    

Still, county officials say over the past five years their average unemployment rate has steadily dropped from 12.4 percent to 10.9 percent partly because of state introduced programs. 

“We’ve got enterprise zones in our county, our entire county is a hub zone and these are just simply tax credit programs that the state offers to help folks become interested in the county to locate here,” Meredith Mears deputy director for the Worcester County Department of Economic Development.

 Both officials from Worcester County and Wicomico County say they expect the downward trends to continues.