Miss. jobless rate rises in June as economy drags

The state’s jobless rate rose to 8.8 percent, from 8.7 percent in May as the number of people with jobs fell, according to figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s the first time that the unemployment rate has risen in Mississippi since hitting its post-recession peak of 10.9 percent in July 2011. A year ago in June, the rate was 10.8 percent.

The number of unemployed Mississippians rose to 118,200 from 116,500 in May, well below 145,500 from a year ago.

The unemployment rate is calculated by a survey that asks how many people are looking for a job. A second survey each month asks employers how many people are on their payrolls, a measure that many economists look to as their top labor market indicator.

The payroll survey found that total jobs in Mississippi, at 1.084 million, fell by 4,000 from May to June, when seasonally adjusted. Total jobs were about 4,000 fewer than a year ago, another measure of weakness in the state economy.

Mississippi was among six states where payrolls shrank from June 2011 to June 2012, according to federal figures. The state is now nearly 77,000 jobs short of its pre-recession peak in payroll employment.

Forecasters at IHS Global Insight predicted Monday that Mississippi will return to its pre-recession employment peak only in 2016 or 2017. Among southern states, only Alabama and Florida are predicted to be so slow in straggling back to pre-recession job totals, the forecasters said. The South overall, which has been hit hard by job losses, is expected to surpass pre-recession job total in the middle of 2014.

Economist Charlie Dougherty of said that the bad job situation is forcing Mississippians to leave the state.

“Mississippi is the only state in the region that has registered consistent outmigration, thanks to a dire labor market situation that stretches back even before the great recession,” the IHS Global Insight forecaster said Monday.

Federal authorities said last month that Mississippi’s economy went back into recession in 2011, and growth signals for the first half of 2012 suggest the state’s economy is treading water at best. The bad job numbers tend to magnify those questions, as do indicators that the state’s factory sector is slowing and personal income is falling. Suggesting a growing economy, though, are continued increases in sales tax and income tax collections.

Mississippi retained the eighth-highest unemployment rate among the states. Overall, jobless levels rose in 27 states, with Nevada retaining the highest rate at 11.6 percent and North Dakota keeping the lowest, falling to 2.9 percent.

The national unemployment rate stayed steady at 8.2 percent in June, and remained below the 9.1 percent level of June 2011.

Mississippi’s unemployment rate had fallen sharply over the last year, in part because people were leaving the labor market. The labor force was basically flat in June.

County-level unemployment numbers won’t be released by the state until Wednesday.

The broadest measure of those who are unemployed which includes people who are looking for work only sporadically, have given up looking or are working part time because they can’t find a full-time job averaged 15.5 percent in Mississippi over the 12 months ending March 30, the most recent figures available.

Nationwide, that broad measure averaged 15.6 percent during the same time.