After registering a 34-year low unemployment rate in April, Newton County's rate climbed back up nine-tenths of a point in May, according to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.
The May rate, at 2.9%, ended a three-month trend that saw the rate drop nearly two points from 3.9% in January. The rate is four-tenths of a point lower than a year ago when it was 3.3%. Newton County's May unemployment rate ranks 29th lowest in the state, sharing the ranking with six other counties: Grenada, Hancock, Marion, Stone, Tallahatchie, and Winston counties.
The estimated number of unemployed in Newton County for May rose by 70, to 230, while the number of employed dropped by 10, to 7,480. The county’s civilian labor force increased to 7,710, up 70 from last month.
Mississippi’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May 2024 was 2.9%, increasing 1.1 percentage points from the previous month's rate of 1.8%. Compared to May 2023, the rate decreased by two-tenths of a percentage point over the year.
In May 2024, 35 counties in Mississippi posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 2.9%. Union County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month at 1.9%, followed by Lafayette County at 2.0%. Jefferson County had the highest unemployment rate for May at 11.3%, followed by Claiborne County at 7.2%.
The nation’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May 2024 was 3.7%, increasing two-tenths of a percentage point over the month and three-tenths of a percentage point over the year.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May 2024, at 2.8%, was unchanged over the month, remaining at a historic low. The rate was three-tenths of a percentage point lower than the 3.1% reported for May 2023. The nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 4.0% increased one-tenth of a percentage point over the month and three-tenths of a percentage point from the year-ago rate of 3.7%. In May 2024, the number of employed Mississippians rose over the month by 3,400 to 1,198,600. The number of unemployed Mississippians decreased by 400 over the month to a new historic low of 34,600.
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.
