July unemployment rose to 11.2% in Tallahatchie County, an increase of 2.8% from the revised June figure of 8.4%, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security revealed Tuesday.
It was the county’s highest unemployment rate for the month of July since 2012, when local joblesses stood at 12.2%.
The MDES, which compiles the state’s employment data, noted that 560 members of the county’s 4,990-person labor force were unemployed in July. The labor force consists of everyone who has a job or is actively looking for one.
In June, 430 of 5,090 labor force members were jobless.
The county’s July jobless rate was 4.5% higher than the 6.7% figure recorded in July 2019, when 360 of 5,360 available laborers age 16 and older did not find work.
Due to the continued effects of COVID-19, July unemployment was up markedly in Mississippi, MDES statistics indicate.
The Mississippi unemployment rate stood at 11.5% in July, an increase of 1.7% from the 9.8% rate in June. Compared to the jobless figure of 6.3% from July 2019, the latest rate is 5.2% higher.
The number unemployed in the state last July was 81,300. That number skyrocketed to 143,300 this July.
However, there were some signs that the pandemic cloud is lifting from the state’s job market.
Initial unemployment insurance claims in Mississippi fell from 70,171 in June to 42,618 in July. The number of continued claims dropped from 657,190 to 634,327.
Nationally, joblessness dipped from 11.2% in June to 10.5% in July. One year ago, only 4% of laborers were unemployed in this country.
The number of unemployed Americans dropped from 18,072,000 in June to 16,882,000 by July — still more than double the 6,556,000 who were without a job in July 2019.
The July unemployment rates for selected area counties, with June figures in parenthesis, are:
» Coahoma, 17.4 (14.2)
» Grenada, 11.3 (8.8)
» Lafayette, 9.2 (8.1)
» Leflore, 15.6 (12.5)
» Panola, 15.5 (12.4)
» Quitman, 15.8 (12.5)
» Sunflower, 15.8 (11.4)
» Yalobusha, 11.3 (10.6)
Jefferson County had the state’s highest jobless rate of 25.7% in July. At 7.2%, Rankin County boasted of the lowest rate among Mississippi’s 82 counties.
