Lincoln County’s unemployment rate remains unchanged since Christmas, while joblessness statewide has fallen to an historic low.

Statistics for January indicate an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent — 690 people — for Lincoln County, the same rate as December 2017. Conversely, the number of people without a job fell to 4.6 percent, or 58,300 individuals, across Mississippi in January.

The national unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in January, which signifies a 0.2 percent increase from December.

The Lincoln County labor force was made up of 14,420 individuals in January.

Meanwhile, the Mississippi labor force was comprised of 1,275,000 people in January, and that number represents a decrease of 2,500 individuals from December. During the same period 12 months prior, the state’s labor force was 1,282,500 strong.

So, even though there are less people working in Mississippi, there are actually fewer people without jobs since records began in 1976.

Lincoln County’s 4.8 percent is ranked No. 35 in the state. The lowest rate belongs to Rankin and Union counties, at 3.1 percent each. Jefferson County is home to Mississippi’s largest rate of unemployment — 13.3 percent — and Humphreys County follows with 9.7 percent.

Seasonally adjusted data removes the effects of events that follow a more or less regular pattern each year, such as the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools and other recurring seasonal events. These adjustments make it easier to observe the cyclical and other non-seasonal movements in a data series. Amounts are seasonally adjusted at the national and state levels only.