County’s Jobless Rate Continues Slight Decline

Staff Report

WATER VALLEY – Yalobusha County’s unemployment rate is still dropping for the year going from 15.4 percent in March to 14.5 percent in April.

Unemployment in the county is still the highest it has been for April in the past five years, topping the April 2006 rate by almost 8 percentage points. And, it is up a point from the March 2009 rate of 13.5 percent, according to the latest numbers released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

The 14.5 percent figure is also the highest for the five surrounding counties and has pushed the state from 17th highest in the state to 15th highest. The figures are based on the county of residence.

Mississippi’s unemployment rate for April was 10.7 percent, decreasing five-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month’s rate of 11.2 percent.

The Nation’s unemployment rate of 9.5 percent for April was down seven-tenths of a percentage point over the month, but was nine-tenths of a percentage point higher than the year ago rate of 8.6 percent.

Results from Mississippi’s nonfarm employment survey, which is counted by the location of establishments, reported a not seasonally adjusted increase of 1,800 in employment over the month, but a decrease of 15,300 from one year ago.

For the month of April 2010, only twenty counties in Mississippi posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 10.7 percent.

Unemployment rates decreased or remained unchanged over the month in all but two counties. Rankin County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month of April at 6.9 percent followed by Lamar County at 7.4 percent.