Pearl River County’s unemployment rate was ranked as 16th in the state during the month of July, which is an improvement compared to last month’s ranking of 17th.
According to information released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, Pearl River County’s unemployment rate for the month of July was 6.1 percent, which is a decrease from June’s revised rate of 6.3 percent. Overall, the rate puts Pearl River County 16th on the unemployment list out of the state’s 82 counties.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Mississippi in July was 6.5 percent, a decrease from June’s revised rate of 6.6 percent. In July of 2014, Mississippi’s adjusted unemployment rate was 7.5 percent.
Nationwide, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in July was 5.3 percent, which is the same rate from the month of June.
A year ago in July the nationwide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.2 percent.
Seasonally adjusted rates factor in patterns such as weather, holidays, school schedules and other occurrences that regularly affect employment rates. Only nationwide and statewide percentages are adjusted.
Mississippi’s unadjusted rate for July was 6.9 percent, the report states. The state’s unadjusted revised rate for June was 7 percent.
Mississippi’s unadjusted rate for July 2014 was 8.7 percent.
Nationwide, the unadjusted unemployment rate in July was 5.6 percent, increasing slightly from June’s rate of 5.5 percent. In July of the previous year, the unadjusted unemployment rate in the United States was 6.5 percent.
Of Mississippi’s 82 counties, 28 reported unemployment rates at or below the statewide-unadjusted average of 6.9 percent. Rankin County again reported the least amount of unemployment with 3.9 percent followed by DeSoto County with 4.7 percent and Scott County with a rate of 4.8 percent.
Issaquena County reported the highest unemployment rate at 17.1 percent while Jefferson County reported the second highest rate of 16.6 percent.
According to the report, in July, there were 5,800 more jobs in Mississippi than in June and 15,700 more than July 2014. This number is based on a survey of Mississippi employers.