County’s Jobless Declines In April
County’s Jobless Declines In April
By David Howell
Editor
WATER VALLEY – The county’s jobless rate continued the second straight monthly decline in April with a reported 4.9 percent of the county’s work force unemployed according to the latest statistics from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. The decrease is a full percentage point less than the unemployment rate in March. It is also less than the statewide rate in April, which was 6.0 percent.
The calculation for April’s unemployment rate is determined based on the total labor force of 5,080, with 250 unemployed. The labor force is defined as the estimated number of people eligible for work or actively seeking employment, but those figures don’t include people who have given up looking or no longer participating in the labor force. Statewide there were 2,600 less jobs in Mississippi in April than the preceding month, but 15,400 more than April 2015, according to the seasonally adjusted rates from a survey of Mississippi employers.
The April 4.9 percent is the lowest the county has recorded for April in five years, and less than half of the 11.1 posted in 2011 when the area was still climbing out of a recession that started in 2008.
In comparison with the five surrounding counties, Yalobusha’s rate is higher than Lafayette (4.0), Calhoun (4.7) and Grenada (4.3), but less than Panola (6.1) and Tallahatchie (5.5).
Initial unemployment claims were reported at 22, five less than 27 reported during February and March. Continued claims in April also dropped to 133, down from 172 in March. MDES paid $22,981 for unemployment benefits in the county in April, as compared to $34,903 in March.
For the month of April 2016, twenty-nine counties in Mississippi posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 5.0 percent. Rankin County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month of April at 3.4 percent followed by DeSoto and Madison Counties at 3.7 percent. Jefferson County had the highest unemployment rate for April at 14.4 percent followed by Issaquena County at 14.1 percent.
