Can This Be True?

Kilo provides a link to a letter to the editor of the Bristol Herald Courier regarding Dickenson County employment statistics. If they're anywhere close to accurate, they are shocking. I'll be looking into them when I get the chance.

Update 02/20/06, 8:16pm: It appears the numbers referenced above are not close to reality, at least at first glance. Here's the latest employment data for Dickenson as of December, 2005:

Monthly (December) Not Seasonally Adjusted Labor Force, Employment and Unemployment data in Dickenson County for 2005

Civilian Labor Force - 5599
Employment - 5325

Unemployment - 274

Unemployment Rate (%) - 4.9

Source: LAUS Unit and Bureau of Labor Statistics (link)

And then there are the census numbers:

Decennial Census Annual Population Data in Dickenson County for 2000

Population - 16395

Source: US Census Bureau (link)

The census bureau is projecting a sharp decline in population by 2010:

State Demographer Projections Population Data in Dickenson County for 2010

Population - 15,500

Source: State Data Center (link)

Though these numbers are not as bad as those cited in the letter to the Bristol paper, they are still depressing and indicate that Dickenson County is on a glidepath to being Virginia's first ghost county.