County’s Jobless Rate Eases Down

By Jack Gurner
Reporter

WATER VALLEY – Unemployment in Yalobusha County has dropped by 2.6 percentage points in the past month.

However, the August rate of 14.7 percent is still the highest in the northern third of the state with the exception of Clay County to the east, according to the latest figures from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

Yalobusha now ranks as seventh highest in the state, down from sixth place last month.

The average unemployment rate in August for the preceding five years is 8.6 percent. The number of unemployed in the county is 810 compared to 510 a year ago.

The number of employed persons in the county is 4710, the same as last month. The labor force is shown as 5520, which is 180 less than last month.

Mississippi’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August 2009 was 9.5 percent, decreasing from the previous month’s rate of 10.5 percent. When compared to the August 2008 rate of 7.4 percent, the rate increased over two percentage points.

The number of unemployed decreased 16,600 over the month while the employed total decreased 19,800 from the prior month.

The Nation’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August 2009 was down slightly over the month at 9.6 percent but was 3.5 percentage points higher than the year ago rate of 6.1 percent.

For the month of August 2009, only twenty-six counties in Mississippi posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 9.5 percent. Neshoba County was the only county that had an over the month rate increase.

Rankin County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month of August at 5.9 percent followed by Madison County at 6.7 percent. Fifty-three counties reported double-digit rates for the month with six counties reporting rates greater than 15.0 percent.