The government said the economy could be recovering faster than expected now that unemployment rates dipped.

Layoffs in the country are slowing but locally the numbers are expected to climb now that Ormet announced it will layoff hundreds. Severstall Steelworkers remain on layoff and whether even more join the ranks remains to be seen.

The July numbers are out nationally, showing the jobless rate fell to 9.4% for July. It's the first decline in 15 months. Many analysts predicted more than 320,000 jobs would be lost, but in reality, they were much lower at only 247,000 people losing their jobs.

Wheeling's unemployment rate isn't that bad. It's lower than the national average and the lowest in the Northern Panhandle. Hancock County is hit the hardest to the north at 13%.

In Marshall County it’s 10.2% and Wetzel County has the highest unemployment locally at 14.3%, while Tyler County has 13.3%.

Even if the numbers continue to improve locally or nationwide, it's still going to take a while to get the unemployed back to work.

The Obama administration is warning that unemployment could still get worse, possibly climbing to 10% by the end of the year. Locally counties to our south will see their numbers increase once the Ormet employees begin losing their jobs