Mississippi’s unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent in April, down eight-tenths of a percentage point from March. That’s according to figures from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security released Wednesday.

The national jobless rate was 8.6 percent for April. Mississippi’s rate in April 2008 was 5.6 percent.

According to MDES figures, about 3,100 more people were employed in April than the previous month with construction and hospitality industries seeing the largest gains.

Rankin County had the lowest jobless rate at 5.4 percent followed by Lamar County at 5.5 percent. Noxubee County had the highest rate at 17.2 percent with Holmes County at 17.1 percent.

On the Net:

Mississippi Department of Employment Security, http://www.mdes.ms.gov