June unemployment figures show a slight increase from May of those without jobs. According to the Mississippi Department of Unemployment Security, June unemployment numbers rose to 10.4 percent from 9.6 percent. But the MDUS said the increase is not a cause for alarm.
“Since 1980, the unemployment numbers typically go up from May to June,” said MDUS Chief of Labor Market Information Mary Willoughby. “The reason for this is high school and college-age students that are out of school are considered part of the workforce. The county data is not seasonally adjusted. It’s a seasonal pattern. When the students go back to school, they are removed from the workforce statistics.”
While there was an increase from May to June, the June 2012 numbers are the lowest numbers for June since 2008.
“The estimates show that the number of employed is only 240 below that level in 2008, but well above the 2010 number,” said Willoughby. ” Also, the number of unemployed has decreased considerably from 2010 and 2011. The number of unemployed is still 570 above 2008. Since the civilian labor force is larger than the 2008 estimate, the data is not showing that there have been a lot of people dropping out of the labor force. This data is based on people that live in Lowndes County, no matter where they work.”
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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