November’s Unemployment Is Higher Than Previous Years

By Jack Gurner
Reporter

WATER VALLEY – Yalobusha County’s unemployment rate for November was down from October. However, it rose about two percent from November of last year, according to the latest figures released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

The November figure of 9.1 percent unemployment is the highest recorded for the month for the previous five years by about 1.2 percent on average, according to statistics from the MDES.

Unemployment in Yalobusha was also higher than four of the surrounding counties and equal to Calhoun County for the month.

Mississippi saw a decrease in the not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from October to November 2008 as the rate fell slightly from 6.9 to 6.6 percent.

Over the month decreases were also noted for the number of unemployed (3,900) and employed (3,200) causing the labor force total to decline by (7,100). The rate was almost one percentage point higher than the November 2007 rate of 5.7 percent.

For the month of November 2008, fifty-six counties saw their rates decrease over the month, six reported no change and twenty reported over the month rate increases. Rankin County had the lowest unemployment rate at 4.1 percent followed by Lafayette at 4.2 percent.