Showing that Valencia County’s economy continues to worsen, the county’s unemployment rate in December rose to 9.0 percent, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Valencia County ends '09 at 9.0 percent.

While the unemployment rate has mostly ticked upward one- or two-tenths at a time over the last year, in December the unemployment rate shot up four-tenths of a percent.

December’s rate is the highest on record for Valencia County.

It comes at a time when the promise of Signet Solar, a solar technology manufacturer expected create 600 jobs in Belen, was unable to get a federal loan guarantee to move forward with financing and construction of a plant.

City of Belen officials are in Washington, DC, this week on a planned trip to lobby Congress. At the last minute, they arranged to meet with officials at the United States Department of Energy, the department that denied the loan guarantee.

This page was published on February 2, 2010 at 11:17am and is filed under Archive.