The unemployment rate in Mississippi and in each of the four Golden Triangle counties is higher than it was a month ago, according to labor market statistics released Wednesday by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. However, the MDES says the numbers could be a good sign.
“We always say that these numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they do tell part of the story,” said Mary Willoughby, director of MDES labor market information, adding the numbers may reflect those who had previously left the job market out of frustration, but are now back. “These numbers we’re looking at now may reflect that a lot of those people have a little more optimism and have decided it’s time to start looking again.”
The state’s overall unemployment rate is 1.4 percent higher than it was in November and 0.1 percent higher than it was in December 2014. There were 5,100 more people identified as unemployed in the state in December than in November and 11,100 more unemployed in December 2015 than on the same date a year ago.
In the Golden Triangle, jobless rates for December 2015 compared to November went up from 1.4 percent to 1.7 percent and Oktibbeha County’s unemployment rate was 0.3 percent higher in December 2014 than it was a year ago.
Mississippi’s unemployment rate for December 2015 was 7.2 percent, compared to 5.8 percent in November 2015 and 7.3 percent in December 2014. That national jobless rate remained unchanged at 5.0 percent for the two previous months.
Lowndes County and Noxubee County saw unemployment rise by 1.4 percent in December in comparison to November. The increase was 1.5 percent in Clay County and 1.7 percent in Oktibbeha County.
December rates are historically higher than in November, Willoughby said.
“You can’t read too much into the December numbers because the job market is pretty unstable,” she said. “That’s a time of the year when college students are out of school and are looking for work and that skews the numbers somewhat.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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