Webster County’s unemployment rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.8 percent in November.
The county’s jobless rate went up from 4.7 percent in October but is four-tenths of a percentage point lower than in November 2016.
Mississippi Department of Employment Security statistics from 1990 forward show the county’s highest unemployment rate for November came in 1995, when it reached 17.3 percent. The lowest rate for that period was in 1998, when it dropped to 3.1 percent.
The number of unemployed Webster Countians in November rose by 10 to 190. The labor force, which is made up of everyone who has a job or is looking for one, decreased by 20 to 3,900.
The state’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in November while the national average was 3.9 percent, also unadjusted. Lamar County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month at 3.2 percent while Jefferson had the highest at 10.9 percent.
November jobless rates in adjoining counties:
• Calhoun, 3.7 percent.
• Grenada, 4 percent.
• Oktibbeha, 4 percent.
• Choctaw, 4.6 percent.
• Chickasaw, 4.9 percent.
• Montgomery, 5 percent.
• Clay, 6.1 percent.
