Lincoln County and much of the rest of southwest Mississippiended 2000 on a positive note with significant decreases in joblessrates, according to Mississippi Employment Security Commissiontotals.

Lincoln County’s rate was down seven-tenths to 3.7 percent. Thedecline, which placed it at number 27 in county-by-county ranking,was indicative of a statewide trend, said David Holland, BrookhavenMESC office manager.

“With a 3.7 rate, there’s still 26 counties with that rate orlower,” Holland said, pointing out that Lincoln County’s rate wasthe same as the national average. “That’s really good to be at thenational average.”

The statewide rate was 4.3 percent for December. Holland saidcounties with rates lower than Lincoln’s were mainly metropolitanareas or communities with colleges or gaming activities.

“That speaks well of Lincoln County to have that low a rate,”Holland said.

Statistics showed a civilian labor force of 16,670. Of those,14,130 were listed as employed.

“We’re getting pretty close to full employment when only 540people are unemployed,” Holland said.

Chandler Russ, executive vice-president of theBrookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce, was pleased with thecounty’s December rate. He said the numbers were seasonal due toholiday shopping.

“The numbers indicate retailers beefed up their employmentduring that time,” Russ said. “Everything else pretty much stayedthe same.”

Lincoln County maintained the second-lowest rate in the areabehind Amite County. That county’s December total was downtwo-tenths to 3 percent.

Walthall County posted the largest area December decrease. Itsrate dropped 1.3 percentage points to 6.2 percent.

Two other area counties saw declines of almost a full point.Pike County’s rate was down nine-tenths to 4.3 percent and theCopiah County rate dropped eight-tenths to 5.2 percent.

Franklin County experienced a small three-tenths fall to 7.2percent.

Two area counties posted increases during December.

The Lawrence County rate climbed 1.4 percentage points to 10percent.

Jefferson County had its rate inch up two-tenths to 15.2percent. That was highest in the area and fourth-highest in thestate behind Issaquena (20.9 percent), Holmes (20.3 percent) andSharkey (17.2 percent).

MESC officials said most counties saw their rates fall inDecember, with the exception being in some agriculturalcounties.

Lafayette County had the lowest jobless rate at a minuscule 1.1percent. On the other end of the spectrum, 10 counties haddouble-digit unemployment totals.

State officials expected January rates to climb as weatherhindered some construction and post-holiday job force reductionstake effect.