Unemployment in the Golden Triangle fell in August, but that dip is more a reflection of the start of the school year than a rebound in the economy.
That trend was certainly reflected among the Golden Triangle area counties, ranging from a 1.2 percent drop in Lowndes County to a 2.7 percent decline in Clay County.
Oktibbeha County’s unemployment rate fell 1.3 percent from July’s figure and declined by 2 percent in Noxubee County.
According to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, which compiles the monthly data, the changes reflect seasonal trends each year, such as weather-related emergencies, holidays, the opening and closing of school years and other recurring events.
While August’s data reflects the impact of the start of the school year, the declines are modest when compared to August 2015. The rates have fallen only by small margins, ranging from 0.2 to 0.8 percent in the Golden Triangle.
The state and national jobless rates show a similar pattern. In August, Mississippi unemployment fell by 0.8 percent from the previous month and by 0.3 percent compared to August 2015. Nationally, the rate fell by 0.1 percent since July and by 0.2 percent compared to last August.
Although the outlook has improved modestly over the past year, it is far better than it was five years ago, when Mississippi first began to show signs of recovery from the 2009 recession.
This is particularly true for Clay and Noxubee counties, where the unemployment rate in August 2011 was 15 percent. The unemployment rate has been reduced almost by half that amount in the past five years. Lowndes County’s unemployment rate fell from 9.8 percent five year ago to today’s 5.9 percent. In Oktibbeha County, the jobless rate fell from 9.5 percent in 2011 to 5.5 percent in August.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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