Clarksdale and Coahoma County are fighting a double whammy this fall as unemployment and inflation are on the rise yet the state posts record low jobless rates.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month for Mississippi was 3.6 percent remained at the lowest level ever recorded for the state.
But Coahoma County had an unemployment rate of 5.9 percent and was surrounded by Tunica at 4.7, Quitman at 5.6, Tallahatchie at 3.9, Sunflower at 6.1 and Bolivar at 4.6.
Coahoma reported a labor force 7,620 workers with 7,170 of those working and 450 unemployed. That number does not reflect those on disability, extended social programs or those working and not paying taxes or those who have stopped looking for work.
The bright spot is many retail businesses hire workers for the Holiday shopping season which officially begins Nov. 1.
Coahoma County has an estimated population of 20,438 and is the 45th largest county by population among the state’s 82 counties.
Coahoma County lost 17.41 percent of its 2010 estimated population of 26,151. That rounds out to about 5,100 people moving out of the county over the past 10 years or about 510 people leaving every year.
The nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased two-tenths of a percentage point over the month from 3.7 to 3.5 percent and was 1.2 percentage points lower than the year ago rate of 4.7 percent.
Seasonally adjusted data removes the effects of events that follow a more or less regular pattern each year such as the influences of weather, agriculture labor at harvest, 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.
The national economic expansion from 2009 to 2020 was the longest recorded in the history of the United States. The unemployment rate fell dramatically and real gross domestic product (GDP) steadily increased. But COVID and federal stimulus dollars sent many home and Coahoma County reported 13-percent unemployment in June 2020.
As the labor force shrank inflation rose as factories could not keep up with consumption and demand out-stripped supply.
The national inflation rate is 8.2 percent over the last 12 months, with Mississippi’s inflation rate slightly lower at 6.8 percent.
In the Delta, gas prices are up 19-cents, grocery prices are up 13-percent and natural gas prices are predicted to be up 20-percent this winter.
Sadly, compensation has not kept up with inflation.
Compensation costs for most workers increased 1.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the three-month period ending in June 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week. Wages and salaries increased 1.4 percent and benefit costs increased 1.2 percent from March 2022.
Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 5.5 percent over the year. Compensation costs for state and local government workers increased 3.4 percent for the 12-month period ending in June 2022, compared with an increase of 2.0 percent in June 2021.
