County’s Jobless Rate Is Sixth Highest In State

By Jack Gurner
Reporter

WATER VALLEY – Unemployment is still on the rise putting Yalobusha County at sixth highest in the state.

The July rate of 17.4 percent is the highest in the northern third of the state and the highest in the five surrounding counties, according to the latest figures from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

The average rate in July for the preceding five years is 9.5 percent. The number of unemployed in the county is 990 compared to 520 a year ago.

Mississippi’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July 2009 was 10.5 percent, increasing .6 percent over the previous month’s rate of 9.9 percent. When compared to the July 2008 rate of 8 percent, the rate increased 2.5 percentage points.

The number of unemployed increased 8,100 over the month while the employed total is down 6900 from the prior month.

The Nation’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July 2009 remained unchanged over the month at 9.7 percent but was almost four percentage points higher than the year ago rate of 6.0 percent.

For the month of July 2009, only 24 counties in Mississippi posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 10.5 percent. Rankin County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month of July at 6.5 percent followed by Lamar County at 7.7 percent.

Sixty-one counties reported double-digit rates for the month with nine counties reporting rates greater than 15.0 percent.

Three counties posted unemployment rates greater than 20.0 percent with Jefferson County having the highest rate at 21.0 percent.