Unemployment rate increases to 5.9%
Webster County’s unemployment rate for January increased three-tenths of a percentage point to 5.9%, according to figures released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.
The county’s jobless rate was 5.6% both in December and in January 2019.
MDES statistics from 1990 forward show the county’s highest unemployment rate for January came in 2003, when it reached 16%. The lowest rate for that period was in 1998, when it dropped to 4.9%.
The number of unemployed Webster Countians in January increased by 10 to 230. The labor force, which is made up of everyone who has a job or is looking for one, increased by 10 to 3,900.
The state’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.3% in January while the national average, also unadjusted, was 4%.
Jobless rates in adjoining counties: Calhoun, 5.9%; Chickasaw, 5.3%; Choctaw, 5.2%; Clay, 7.6%; Grenada, 5%; Montgomery, 6.1%; and Oktibbeha, 5.2%.
Statutory rape case again continued
A preliminary hearing in the case of a former Eupora High School employee charged with statutory rape has again been continued.
Former EHS assistant teacher Kayla Tindall was to have a preliminary hearing in Webster County Justice Court on Friday, which had been continued from an earlier date. She is accused of the statutory rape of a 13-year-old boy last fall.
County Prosecutor Henry Ross said the hearing was continued again because Investigator Vernon Hathcock of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is awaiting a report from another agency that is assisting in the investigation.
Justice Court Judge Rebecca Ellison continued the case until April 24, when the court session begins at 1 p.m.
