Tallahatchie County unemployment rose to 3.4% in May, an increase of three-tenths of 1% from April’s revised figure of 3.1%, according to a Mississippi Department of Employment Security report Tuesday.
The MDES, which compiles the state’s employment data, noted that 160 members of the county’s 4,530-person labor force were unemployed in May while 4,380 were working. The labor force consists of everyone who has a job or is actively looking for one.
In April, 140 of 4,540 labor force members were jobless while 4,400 were employed.
The county’s May jobless rate was five-tenths of 1% lower than the 3.9% figure of May 2022, when 190 of 4,820 available laborers age 16 and older did not find work.
The Mississippi unemployment rate stood at 3.0% in May, an increase of three-tenths of 1% from April’s 2.7%. The state’s May jobless rate is seven-tenths of 1% lower than the 3.7% figure of May 2022.
MDES noted that a total of 37,400 members of the state’s labor force were unemployed in May, up from 34,000 in April but much lower than the 47,100 reported in May 2022.
Nationally, the unemployment rate rose from 3.1% in April to 3.4% in May, matching the 3.4% rate of May 2022.
The May unemployment rates for selected area counties, with April figures in parenthesis, are:
» Coahoma, 5.0 (4.3)
» Grenada, 3.4 (2.8)
» Lafayette, 2.2 (2.1)
» Leflore, 4.5 (4.0)
» Panola, 3.7 (3.4)
» Quitman, 4.7 (4.0)
» Sunflower, 4.4 (4.1)
» Tallahatchie, 3.4 (3.1)
» Yalobusha, 3.6 (3.2)
At 10.2%, Jefferson County had the state’s highest unemployment rate in May. At 2.1%, Rankin and Union counties were tied for lowest.
