Lincoln County’s jobless rate for June was 6.4 percent, up from May’s 5.9 percent.

Those figures are from the latest data released Wednesday by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

The jobless rate is the percentage of the total labor force that is unemployed but actively seeking employment and is willing to work.

MDES calculates the unemployment rate by surveying how many people are seeking a job. This includes people who look for work sporadically, have given up looking for work, or who work part-time because they cannot find a full-time job.

The county ranked the same as Covington and Hinds counties, according to MDES. The state’s lowest jobless rate was Rankin County, at 4.5 percent. The highest was Jefferson County, at 17.6 percent.

Sixty of the state’s 82 counties had a jobless rate equal to or greater than the state rate of 6.8 percent. Only four counties had a rate equal to or less than the national rate of 5.1 percent.

Lincoln County had 13,670 employed citizens in June, out of a labor force of 14,600. The 6.4 percent jobless rate translates to 930 people unemployed. In June 2015, the county had 13,600 people employed, from a labor force of 14,570. The jobless rate was 6.7 percent, or 970 people.

The MDES notes that the state’s jobless rate has historically increased from May to June annually, as the full impact of students entering the labor force takes place.

The number of unemployed Mississippians declined again in June to 75,400. The June figure is the lowest number of unemployed individuals in our state since February 2004.

The June 2016 number of unemployed Mississippians is 100 lower than a month earlier in May 2016 when the number was 75,500 and 5,400 lower than a year ago in June 2015 when the number was 80,800.

The number of people working in Mississippi declined in June by 9,400 to 1,204,100; however, for the year since June 2015, employment in our state posted an increase of 15,700.

The labor force fell in June by 9,500 to 1,279,500; however, over the year since June 2015, the labor force increased by 10,300 as more Mississippians got jobs or started seeking employment.

A separate survey of Mississippi employers indicated that the number of jobs declined in June by 4,800 to 1,137,100; however, in the year since June 2015, the number of jobs increased by 5,500.