The latest jobless figures have revealed parts of the Shoalhaven have an un-employment rate more than double the national average, while the highlands is well under.

The figures have been released by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, and show the jobless rate in Nowra Bomaderry is now 10.5% , with more than 17 hundred on benefits.

The national rate is 5.2%, and is also on the rise after the loss of 27,000 jobs in the last month.

Nowra Bomaderry's jobless level is up point 2 of a percent in the last year, and is expected to climb further in the next few months, particularly as the slump in retail and manufacturing continues to deepen.

Earlier this month the Boral owned Dowell Windows announced it was closing its South Nowra plant with the loss of more than a dozen jobs.

In the remainder of the Shoalhaven, outside Nowra Bomaderry, the unemployment rate is 7.6%, up almost a percent in the last year, with more than 2,000 people out of a job.

Wingecarribee's jobless rate is still below the national average, at 3.7% it has risen point 2 over the corresponding period last year, with almost 900 people out of work.

Goulburn has bucked the trend with the number out of work declining....131 registered as out of work in March, a decline of 19 over the same time last year..

The jobless rate in Goulburn has gone from 4.3% to 3.6%.