Lincoln County unemployment rates shifted marginally for Januaryat a rate of 6.7 percent, also exactly matching the state’s overallrates.

The state unemployment rate, also at 6.7 percent, is down fromDecember’s 7 percent.

David Holland, office manager of Brookhaven’s WIN Jobs Center,said actually the rate had dropped a little because rates can shiftslightly after the studies are put out.

“The rate for December showed in the numbers at 6.7 percent, butit was actually 6.8, and we went down one-tenth of a percentagepoint from December to January,” he said.

Holland also compared the rate for this time last year to thisyear’s numbers.

“When you compare that to last year the rate was 8.1 percent. Iwould usually expect it to go up in January because of thepart-time Christmas help and that kind of thing,” he said.”Sometimes it affects construction because of bad weather. Usuallyit goes up but it didn’t this time.”

He said it could have been because of milder temperatures inJanuary that the construction community was not drasticallyaffected.

Holland also said the latest total bodes well for February asthere is not usually much of a seasonal change in the first twomonths of the year.

“We’re not expecting much of a change for February rates,” hesaid.

The state overall has dropped as well. It was at 7 percent inDecember, and was also 7 percent this time last year. Holland wasalso quick to point out that the rate for the United Statesactually went up.

Franklin County recorded a fairly decent drop in unemployment,from 8 percent in December to 7.4 percent in January. WalthallCounty also dropped 0.6 percentage points from 7.5 to 6.9 percent.Amite recorded at drop as well from 6.5 to 6.1 percent, and Copiahdropped from 8.5 to 8.2 percent.

Jefferson and Pike both showed increases, with Pike inching upfrom 7 to 7.1 percent, and Jefferson currently has the highestunemployment rate in the state at 14.9 percent, which is up .2percentage point from last month’s 14.7.

Lincoln County is currently 27th in the state in employment.Amite is the only area county placing higher at 15th in thestate.