Tallahatchie County in March bore the unlikely distinction of having tied with Rankin County for the lowest rate of unemployment in the entire state, according to a monthly report from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.
That agency’s statistics list the rate of unemployment in both counties at 2.9% for March, having dropped from February’s 3.5% in Tallahatchie and 3.2% in Rankin.
In March, 159 Tallahatchians were unemployed, and 5,232 employed, from a labor force totaling 5,391.
In Rankin County in March, 2,325 people were unemployed, and 79,044 employed, from a labor force numbering 81,369.
The labor force consists of everyone age 16 and older who has a job or is actively looking for one.
The MDES figures indicate that in February in Tallahatchie County, 190 local residents had been jobless, while 5,175 were working, among a local labor force of 5,365.
Tallahatchie County’s March unemployment rate was nine-tenths of 1% lower than the 3.8% jobless rate of March 2025, when 190 local residents were unemployed, and 4,844 employed, among a labor force tallying 5,034.
The national unemployment rate in March was 4.3%, down four-tenths of a percent from February’s 4.7%, and up one-tenth of a percent from March 2025’s rate of 4.2%.
Mississippi’s jobless rate stood at 3.8% in March, four-tenths of 1% less than February’s 4.2% and identical to the 3.8% rate of March 2025.
March unemployment rates for a number of area counties, with February figures in parenthesis, are:
» Coahoma, 6.7 (7.2)
» Grenada, 4.1 (4.6)
» Lafayette, 3.3 (3.5)
» Leflore, 5.6 (6.1)
» Panola, 4.4 (4.9)
» Quitman, 4.4 (5.3)
» Sunflower, 4.8 (5.2)
» Yalobusha, 3.7 (4.2)
At 8.7%, Issaquena County had the highest unemployment rate in the state, followed by Jefferson’s 7.5%, Claiborne’s 7.0%, Coahoma’s 6.7% and Holmes’ 6.6%.
The lowest jobless rates after the 2.9% of Rankin and Tallahatchie were the 3.1% of Jones and Webster, and the 3.2% shared by Hancock, Madison, Tippah and Union counties.
