Unemployment is down in Lincoln County, but so is the available labor force.

In October, the county had 14,320 people in the civilian labor force. This does not take into account full-time students, farm workers or members of the military. The Mississippi Department of Employment Security recorded 450 people who said they were looking for jobs and able to work, but were unable to find employment in October. That’s 3.1 percent of the county’s labor pool.

In September, the county’s unemployed percent was 3.5, with 510 people unemployed — 60 more than October. There were 190 additional people in the labor force that month, however.

The county nevertheless remains below the state and national average for the month — 3.4 for each. Mississippi had 42,800 people unemployed from a labor force of more than 1.249 million. The state’s jobless rate one year ago was 4.2 percent.

The U.S. average of 3.4 percent represents 5.609 million people out of work, from a labor force of more than 164.75 million. The jobless rate one year ago was 4.3 percent.

Counties bordering Lincoln had October unemployment rates ranging from 3.9 to 11 percent — Copiah, 3.9; Lawrence, 4; Pike, 4.1; Walthall, 4.6; Franklin and Amite, 4.8; and Jefferson, 11 — better rates for each.

Jefferson once again held onto the bottom spot in all 82 counties for percentage. The next closest was Humphreys County at 7.4 percent. Each county only had 200 or 140 people unemployed, respectively, but have small labor forces. Jefferson’s is 1,820 and the worker pool in Humphreys is 1,880.

Rankin County was no longer in the number one position, a place it has held almost without exception for quite some time. Rankin tied for second place with Lamar County at 2.5 percent. The county with the lowest jobless rate was Lafayette, at 2.4. Lafayette had 720 people unemployed from a workforce of 29,940. Rankin had 1.880 people out of work from a pool of 75,280. Lamar had 800 unemployed from 31,640.

Issaquena County has the smallest labor force, at only 310 people. In both August and September, 20 of those were unemployed, so the county’s jobless rate was 6.6 percent. Only 20 were unemployed in October, as well, but the percentage rate rose to 7.7.

In contrast, Hinds County had 3,960 unemployed. Since the county’s labor force is 100,430, however, the jobless rate was only 3.9 percent.

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.