Webster County’s unemployment rate decreased two-tenths of a percentage point to 4.2 percent in October.
The county’s jobless rate was 4.5 percent in September and 4.7 percent in October 2017.
Mississippi Department of Employment Security statistics from 1990 forward show the county’s highest unemployment rate for October came in 2002, when it reached 15.7 percent. The lowest rate for that period was in 1998, when it dropped to 3.8 percent.
The number of unemployed Webster Countians in October decreased by 10 to 170. The labor force, which is made up of everyone who has a job or is looking for one, increased by 30 to 3,950.
The state’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in October while the national average, also unadjusted, was 3.5 percent. Rankin County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month at 3.1 percent while Jefferson had the highest at 10.3 percent.
October jobless rates in adjoining counties:
• Calhoun, 3.5 percent.
• Grenada, 3.8 percent.
• Oktibbeha, 4.1 percent.
• Choctaw, 4.2 percent.
• Montgomery, 4.6 percent.
• Chickasaw, 4.7 percent.
• Clay, 5.7 percent.
