Attala County continues to be left behind when it comes to the unemployment rate.
While the state of Mississippi saw its jobless rate fall to its lowest level in more than 12 years, most of the Central Mississippi region continues to be above the average.
Mississippi’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell again in May to 5.8 percent, according to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. The May rate is the lowest level of unemployment in Mississippi since March 2004, when the unemployment rate was also 5.8 percent.
Along with the drop in the unemployment rate, the number of unemployed Mississippians declined again in May to 75,200, which is the lowest number since Feb. 2004. The May 2016 number of unemployed Mississippians is 2,700 lower than a month earlier in April 2016 when the number was 77,900 and 6,300 lower than a year ago in May 2015 when the number was 81,500.
However, Attala County sits at a 7.2 percent unemployment rate with an estimated 500 persons without a job. The county employs approximately 6,500 people. The county unemployment rate dropped 0.5 percent from last year and a 3.8 percent drop from 2011.
Holmes, Yazoo, Carroll, Montgomery, Winston and Leake counties were all above the state average unemployment, while Madison, Neshoba and Choctaw placed below it.
A separate survey of Mississippi employers indicated that the number of jobs declined in May by 2,200 to 1,141,900; however, in the year since May 2015, the number of jobs increased by 9,500.
