Webster County’s unemployment rate for May increased three-tenths of a percentage point to 5.5%, according to figures released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.
The county’s jobless rate was 5.2% in April and 5.3% in May 2018.
MDES statistics from 1990 forward show the county’s highest unemployment rate for May came in 1992, when it reached 18.1%. The lowest rate for that period was in 1997, when it dropped to 3.9%.
The number of unemployed Webster Countians in May increased by 20 to 220. The labor force, which is made up of everyone who has a job or is looking for one, increased by 50 to 3,950.
The state’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.9% in May while the national average, also unadjusted, was 3.4%.
May jobless rates in adjoining counties: Calhoun, 4.6%; Chickasaw, 5.3%; Choctaw, 4.7%; Clay, 6.5%; Grenada, 4.3%; Montgomery, 5.5%; and Oktibbeha, 5.6%.
