The unemployment rate in Tallahatchie County fell from 6.4% in July to 5.4% in August, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security has re-ported.
The MDES, which compiles the state’s employment data, noted that 290 members of the county’s 5,380-person labor force were unemployed in August. The labor force consists of everyone who has a job or is actively looking for a job.
Revised July figures show 360 of 5,520 Tallahatchie County labor force members were jobless during that recent month.
The county’s August jobless rate was 1% higher than the 4.4% figure recorded in August 2018, when 240 of 5,310 available laborers age 16 and older did not find work.
Statewide, the unemployment rate fell from 6.1% in July to 5.6% in August. Nationally, joblessness fell from 4.0% to 3.8% over the period.
The August unemployment rates for selected area counties, with July figures in parenthesis, are:
» Coahoma, 8.1 (8.3)
» Grenada, 5.1 (5.6)
» Lafayette, 4.9 (5.6)
» Leflore, 7.7 (8.2)
» Montgomery, 6.0 (6.5)
» Panola, 6.6 (7.3)
» Quitman, 8.2 (9.5)
» Sunflower, 9.2 (9.3)
» Yalobusha, 6.3 (6.6)
Jefferson County had the state’s highest jobless rate of 17.9% in August. Rankin County posted the lowest rate of 4.1% among the state’s 82 counties during that month.
