March unemployment in Tallahatchie County fell to 6.5%, a decrease of three-tenths of 1% from the revised February figure of 6.8%, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security revealed Tuesday.
The MDES, which compiles the state’s employment data, noted that 340 members of the county’s 5,160-person labor force were unemployed in March. The labor force consists of everyone who has a job or is actively looking for one.
In February, 350 of 5,130 labor force members were jobless.
The county’s March jobless rate was one-tenth of 1% higher than the 6.4% figure recorded in March 2020, when 340 of 5,370 available laborers age 16 and older did not find work.
The Mississippi unemployment rate stood at 6.3% in March, an increase of two-tenths of 1% from the 6.1% rate in February. Compared to the jobless figure of 6.2% from March 2020, the latest rate is one-tenth of 1% higher.
While the number of unemployed persons in the state is roughly the same this March as last — 79,500 this year and 79,400 in March 2020 — the number of those employed is 15,900 less.
Nationally, joblessness dipped from 6.6% in February to 6.2% in March. However, one year ago, before the worst of the pandemic’s effects were felt, only 4.5% of laborers were unemployed in this country. By the numbers, that means over 2.5 million more people are without a job this March than last.
The March unemployment rates for selected area counties, with February figures in parenthesis, are:
» Coahoma, 10.1 (10.0)
» Grenada, 5.7 (5.8)
» Lafayette, 4.5 (4.3)
» Leflore, 9.5 (9.5)
» Panola, 8.1 (7.9)
» Quitman, 9.9 (9.7)
» Sunflower, 10.3 (10.7)
» Yalobusha, 6.5 (6.5)
Jefferson County had the state’s highest jobless rate of 16.7% in March. Rankin County, at 4.1%, had the lowest unemployment rate.
