unemployed

The unemployment rate for Genesee County is up more than a percentage point from this time last year, according to WBTA's Dan Fischer. The October jobless rate for the county was figured at 5.2 percent this year, as compared with 4.1 percent, last year. Those figures are released by the State Department of Labor, one of whose economists said that the last time the figures for the region were this high, the country was coming out of the recession of the early 1990s.

M&T Bank is on tap to receive $600 million from the federal government, in exchange for "preferred stock" that will go to the Treasury Department, as part of the nationwide "rescue plan."

(Update): The Buffalo News today includes a comprehensive article on M&T's option to join the "bailout." Especially interesting are these few lines:

M&T had been hesitant to sign on because executives feel the bank is perfectly healthy, hasn’t cut back on lending in its communities, and doesn’t need the extra capital. The bank currently has $6.4 billion in capital, giving it a “Tier 1” capital ratio of 7.34 percent, which exceeds the highest regulatory minimums.

That’s why the bank requested only the minimum of $600 million, as opposed to the maximum of about $1.73 billion that it could have sought, based on its asset size.

Come again? The bank is doing perfectly fine, doesn't need the money, but figured: 'Hey, what the heck, if they're giving it out, we might as well take some.'