The unemployment rate in Tallahatchie County held steady at 6.8% from November to December, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security has reported.
The MDES, which compiles the state’s employment data, noted that 330 members of the county’s 4,850-person labor force were unemployed in December. The labor force consists of everyone who has a job or is actively looking for a job.
In November, 320 of 4,430 Tallahatchie County labor force members were jobless.
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The county’s December unemployment rate was five-tenths of 1% higher than the 6.3% figure recorded in December 2019, when 330 of 5,200 available laborers 16 and older did not find work.
Mississippi’s jobless rate remained unchanged at 5.9%. However, it was seven-tenths of 1% higher than the 5.2% rate of December 2019.
The MDES reported that the number of unemployed persons in Mississippi decreased by 200 from November to December, while the total number of the employed fell 7,900 over the same period.
Thirty of the state’s 82 counties posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 5.9%.
Nationally, the jobless rate rose from 6.4% in November to stand at 6.5% in December. That was 3.1% higher than the 3.4% rate of December 2019.
The December unemployment rates for selected area counties, with November figures in parenthesis, are:
» Coahoma, 9.4 (9.3)
» Grenada, 5.4 (5.4)
» Lafayette, 4.4 (4.1)
» Leflore, 9.4 (9.0)
» Panola, 7.8 (8.0)
» Quitman, 9.6 (9.6)
» Sunflower, 9.7 (9.5)
» Yalobusha, 6.5 (6.0)
At 17.4%, Jefferson County had the state’s highest jobless rate in December. Rankin County’s 3.7% was the lowest.
