While the unemployment rate in the Golden Triangle remained relatively unchanged over the past month, a look at the jobless picture a year ago shows reason for optimism.
The Mississippi Department of Employment Security released its monthly labor market information report Wednesday, showing little change in the jobless rate in June when compared to May. June unemployment ranged from a low of 6.6 in Oktibbeha County to a high of 11.5 percent in Noxubee in the four Golden Triangle-area counties.
In Oktibbeha County, the unemployment rate moved up 1 percent. State officials attribute that to a large student population out of school for the summer.
A comparison of June unemployment rates to those of June 2014, show a substantial drop in Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay and Noxubee counties, however.
MDES statistics show the number of unemployed people in the Golden Triangle has dropped by 1,370. The figures show 4,980 people were unemployed in June.
Mississippi’s unemployment rate is 7.0 for the second month in a row, but the jobless rate is 0.9 lower than in June 2014. In April, the state’s unemployment rate was just 5.7 percent.
While the city of Columbus continues to have the highest unemployment rate among the state’s 15 largest cities, there is some cause for optimism. The June report shows the city’s unemployment rate is 12.6 percent compared to the June 2014 rate of 16.8 percent.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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