State and local unemployment rates continue to reflect the impact of COVID-19 this spring and summer, but maybe we’ll get over it this fall.
Mississippi's unemployment rate was 6.4 percent in November, 2020 – down a full percentage point from October's rate of 7.4 percent.
This was slightly better than the national unemployment rate of 6.7 percent. Mississippi's rate a year ago, November 2019, was 5.6 percent. Mississippi's has 24,900 fewer jobs than a year ago.
Coahoma County’s jobless rate was 9.4 percent in November and the county ranked 73rd among the state’s 82 counties. Rankin County had the lowest unemployment rate at 3.7 percent and was followed closely by Lafayette at 4.2 and DeSoto County at 4.3 percent. Jefferson County had the highest unemployment at 16.4 percent.
Mississippi’s unemployment rate hovered around 5 percent from January until March, but the fear of COVID-19 shut down many small businesses and unemployment rocketed to 15.7 percent in April, fell to about 10 percent in May, June and July and dropped to about 7.5 percent in August, September and October.
Coahoma County’s numbers mirrored that trend, but the county didn’t bounce back from the April spike of 20.9 percent. Coahoma County’s unemployment rate was estimated to be closer to 35 percent among African Americans in April.
Coahoma County has an estimated labor force of 8,370 with 7,570 employed in November or 790 unemployed and drawing an unemployment check.
Coahoma had 2,099 continued claims in November that are not reflected in its unemployment number, up from 302 continued claims in November 2019.
Unemployment numbers also do not reflect those who are not drawing a check or who have stopped looking for a job.
Coahoma County saw $864,271 paid in unemployment benefits in November.
The Delta and Coahoma County typically see a drop in unemployment numbers during the fall harvest season and when teachers go back to school. The Delta had a 10.5 percent unemployment rate in October and that number dropped to 7.1 percent in November.
The state’s complete report can be found at mdes.ms.gov/media/23357/labormarketdata.pdf
