County’s unemployment rate drops to 8 percent

Kemper County’s unemployment rate in November dropped to 8.0 percent, down a percent point from the previous month according to numbers from the Mississippi Employment Security Commission.

That is a half percent point less from November 2019, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,

This was an improvement from earlier this year during the shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Kemper County’s unemployment rate reached 13.9 percent in April.

Kemper County’s labor force in November stood at 3.410 in November. Of that, 270 people were out of work.

Here is a look at the unemployment rates in neighboring counties.:

Mississippi’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November 2020 was 6.0 percent, decreasing one percentage point from the previous month’s rate of 7.0 percent.

When compared to the November 2019 rate of 5.1 percent, the rate increased nine-tenths of a percentage point. The number of unemployed decreased 13,500 over the month, while the employed total increased 5,500 from the prior month. The Nation’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November 2020 at 6.4 percent decreased two-tenths of a percentage point over the month, but was 3.1 percentage points higher than the year ago rate of 3.3 percent.

Mississippi’s not seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment increased 5,100 over the month but decreased 27,100 from one year ago.

The industry sectors registering the largest monthly employment gains were Trade, Transportation & Utilities and Manufacturing.

For the month of November 2020, thirty-two counties in Mississippi posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 6.0 percent. Rankin County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month of November at 3.7 percent followed by Lafayette and Lamar Counties at 4.2 percent. Jefferson County had the highest unemployment rate for November at 16.4 percent followed by Wilkinson County at 14.3 percent.