August unemployment in Tallahatchie County fell to 8.1%, a decline of 1.7% from the revised July figure of 9.8%, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security announced Tuesday.
It was the highest unemployment rate for the month of August since 2013, when local joblessness stood at 10.3%.
The MDES noted that 400 members of the county’s 4,860-person labor force were unemployed in August. The labor force consists of everyone who has a job or is actively looking.
In July, 480 of 4,910 labor force members were jobless.
The county’s August jobless rate was 2.8% higher than the 5.3% figure recorded in August 2019, when 280 of 5,250 available laborers age 16 and older did not find work.
The Mississippi unemployment rate stood at 7.9% in August, a drop of 2.2% from July’s 10.1% but still 2.3% higher than the year-ago rate of 5.6% in August 2019.
August unemployment rates for selected area counties, with July figures in parenthesis, are:
» Coahoma, 12.5 (15.4)
» Grenada, 7.1 (9.9)
» Lafayette, 5.9 (8.1)
» Leflore, 11.1 (13.8)
» Panola, 10.4 (13.7)
» Quitman, 12.7 (14.0)
» Sunflower, 11.8 (13.9)
» Tallahatchie, 8.1 (9.8)
» Yalobusha, 7.6 (9.9)
