Though preliminary January 2022 numbers have been released, the data is not “strictly comparable” with data for December 2021, the last month reported, or with any other month of 2021, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security reported in its highlights for January 2022. This is because of the usual delay for a January report, which has been longer this year. The delay occurs due to work performed to revise labor force estimates from previous years.

There are two types of data counted: one is “not seasonally adjusted unemployment,” which is non regularly patterned, and “seasonally adjusted data,” which removes the effects of events that follow a more or less regular pattern each year, such as the influences of weather, holidays, opening and closing of schools and other recurring seasonal events. Adjusting each makes it easier to observe the cyclical and other non-seasonal movements in a data series, says a MDES report.

Mississippi’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January 2022 was 4.6 percent, a decrease of one-tenth of a percentage point from last month. Compared to a year ago, the rate decreased by two percentage points.

The nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.0, an increase of a tenth of a percentage point over the month, yet 2.4 percentage points lower than a year ago at 6.4 percent.

Seasonally adjusted numbers show that there were 2,100 more jobs in January 2022 than in December 2021. Nonfarm jobs increased 31,000 during the year, with the construction and leisure and hospitality sectors with the largest gains.

Mississippi’s nonadjusted unemployment rate for January was 4.8 percent, increasing 1.3 percentage points from December 2021’s rate of 3.5 percent. Compared to January 2021’s 6.7 percent, the rate decreased 1.9 percentage points. The nation’s rate for January 2022 at 4.4 percent increased seven-tenths of a percentage point during the month, but was 2.4 percentage points lower than the year ago rate of 6.8 percent.

Mississippi’s nonfarm employment decreased 15,300 during the month, but increased 27,600 during the year. Employment losses were highest in professional and business services; trade, transportation and utilities; and leisure and hospitality sectors.

In January 2022, 33 Mississippi counties posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s 4.8 percent rate. Rankin and Union counties posted the lowest unemployment rate for January at 3.4 percent, followed by Lafayette County at 3.6 percent. The highest unemployment rate was in Jefferson County at 16.4 and Humphreys County at 11.3 percent.

The Mississippian “civilian labor force” – everyone 16 and up who has a job or is looking for a job – numbered 1,245,900, with 1,185,500 employed and 60,400 unemployed, for an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent.

In the country as a whole, there were 162,825,000 in the civilian labor force: 155,618,000 were employed, 7,207,000 were not, for a 4.4 unemployment rate.

In Lincoln County, the unemployment rate for January was 4.4. Out of 14,850 available workers 16 and up, 14,190 were employed, while 660 were unemployed.

For Franklin County, out of 2,620 workers, 2,460 were employed in January and 160 were not, for a 3.9 percent unemployment rate.

A preliminary count of the unemployment rate percentages of counties bordering Lincoln County is as follows:

• Copiah, 5.5 percent
• Lawrence, 6.3 percent
• Franklin, 6.1 percent
• Walthall, 6.0 percent
• Pike, 6.1 percent
• Amite, 6.8 percent
• Jefferson, 16.4 percent

Initial Lincoln County filings of unemployment claims in January numbered 47, as opposed to 17 in December and 187 in January 2020.

In Lawrence County, 18 claims were made in January 2021, 66 in December 2021 and 77 this time last year. In Franklin County, 12 unemployment claims were filled in January as compared to 5 in October and 43 in January 2020.

In the entire state of Mississippi, there were 5,938 initial unemployment claims in January 2022, 5,640 in December and 27,936 this time last year.

In January 2022, $3,467,142 was paid in benefits, compared to $3,262,903 million in December and $11,804,606 million in January 2021.

The labor force includes people age 16 and older who are able to work and are either employed or looking for work. This number does not include full-time students, members of the Armed Forces or those with farm jobs, according to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

Monthly estimates of the labor force, employment, unemployment and the unemployment rate are generated by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics Program, a cooperative program between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and State Employment Security agencies.

The numbers are at first preliminary, and then revised to represent all data present into a final report.