Yalobusha’s Jobless Rates Continues To Decrease

Staff Report

WATER VALLEY – Yalobusha County’s unemployment rate is continuing to drop for the year going from 17.1 percent in February to 15.4 percent in March.

Unemployment in the county is still the highest it has been for March in the past five years, topping the March 2006 rate by almost 9 percentage points. And, it is up 3.2 points from the March 2009 rate of 12.2 percent, according to the latest numbers released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

The 15.4 percent figure is also the highest for the five surrounding counties and is holding steady from February as the 17th highest in the state. The figures are based on the county of residence.

Mississippi’s unemployment rate for March was 11.1 percent, decreasing nine-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month’s adjusted rate of 12 percent. When compared to the March 2009 rate of 8.9 percent, the rate increased 2.2 percentage points.

The Nation’s unemployment rate for March 2010 at 10.2 percent was down two-tenths of a percentage point over the month, but was 1.2 percentage points higher than the year ago rate of 9.0 percent.

Results from Mississ-ippi’s nonfarm employment survey, which is counted by the location of establishments, reported an increase of 5,900 in employment over the month, but a decrease of 18,100 from one year ago.

For the month of March, only twenty-one counties in Mississippi posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 11.1 percent.

Unemployment rates decreased over the month in all eighty-two counties. Rankin County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month of March at 7.1.