Choctaw County saw a significant increase in its unemployment rate to begin the New Year, while the entire state posted its lowest unemployment rate and the highest number of jobs ever during the month of January.
Choctaw County’s unemployment rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the month of January 2018 was 5.9 percent, which was a 0.9 percent increase from the December 2017 rate of 5.0 percent.
Mississippi’s unemployment rate continues to trend lower into the New Year with the January 2018 rate at 4.6 percent, which is the lowest level of unemployment ever recorded in Mississippi.
The January rate is two-tenths of a percentage point lower than a month earlier in December 2017 and eight-tenths of a percentage point lower than a year ago in January 2017, when the rate was 5.4 percent.
The number of non-farm jobs in Mississippi rose by 600 in January to 1,162,600, which are the most jobs ever recorded in Mississippi.
Over the year since January 2017, the number of jobs in our state increased by 12,200. These numbers are based on a survey of employers. That employer survey is recognized as the most reliable indicator of job growth.
Seasonally adjusted data removes the effects of events that follow a more or less regular pattern each year such as the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools, and other recurring seasonal events. These adjustments make it easier to observe the cyclical and other non-seasonal movements in a data series. Amounts are seasonally adjusted at the National and State levels only.
Mississippi’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January 2018 was 4.6 percent, increasing two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month’s rate of 4.4 percent. When compared to the January 2017 rate of 6.1 percent, the rate decreased 1.5 percentage points.
The unadjusted rate of unemployed people in Choctaw County for January 2018 was 5.9 percent, with the number of unemployed people being 210. The number of employed people in the county for January 2018 was 3,280.
The Labor Force, which is made up of everyone who has a job or is looking for a job, decreased in January by 2,500 to 1,275,000. Over the year since January 2017, the Labor Force fell by 7,500.
The number of people working in Mississippi rose in January by 100 to 1,216,700. For the year since January 2017, employment in our state increased by 3,900.
The number of unemployed Mississippians fell by 2,600 in January to 58,300, which is the lowest number of Mississippians without jobs since August 1979.
For the month of January 2018, twenty-nine counties in Mississippi posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 4.6 percent. Rankin and Union Counties posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month of January at 3.1 percent followed by Madison County at 3.3 percent.
Jefferson County had the highest unemployment rate for January at 13.3 percent followed by Humphreys County at 9.7 percent.
Over the year since January 2017, the number of unemployed Mississippians decreased by 11,400.
Note: Annually at this time of year work is performed to revise labor force estimates from previous years. Rather than further delay release of the January 2018 information, the decision was made to publish only the preliminary January 2018 estimates. It should be noted that at any level other than statewide the January 2018 labor force data are NOT strictly comparable with the data for December or any other month in 2017. Revised data for 2017 should be released in time for the February or March 2018 estimates. At that time, comparison of data across years will be valid.
