Webster County’s unemployment rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point during December, according to preliminary numbers from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.
Webster County’s rate stood at 3% during December, up from the modern record low of 2.9% in November but half the 6% rate in December 2020.
The estimated number of unemployed Webster Countians in December increased by 10 to 120. The labor force, which is made up of everyone who has a job or is looking for one, decreased by 30 to an estimated 3,800.
MDES statistics from 1990 forward show the county’s highest unemployment rate for December came in 2009, when it reached 15%. The lowest rate for that period was in 1998, when it dropped to 4%. The average unemployment rate last year (and 12-month moving average) was 5.3%
December jobless rates in adjoining counties: Calhoun, 2.8%; Chickasaw, 3.4%; Choctaw, 2.9%; Clay, 4.3%; Grenada, 2.7%; Montgomery, 3.5%; and Oktibbeha, 2.9%.
Mississippi’s unemployment rate for December was 3.1% and the national jobless rate was 3.7%, both not seasonally adjusted.
