Lincoln County’s unemployment rate rose to 5.8 percent in May, up from 5 percent in April. This puts Lincoln county slightly below the state’s average unemployment rate of 6 percent, according to data released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security Thursday.

Copiah County’s unemployment rate rose one percent from 5.6 to 6.6 percent.  Lawrence rose from 6.1 to 7 percent, Franklin from 5.9 to 7.2 percent and Pike from 5.8 to 6.9 percent.

Adjusted for seasonal trends, the unemployment rate in Mississippi actually fell in May to 5.8 percent, down from 6 percent in April. There has been a slight increase in the unadjusted unemployment rate between April and May every year since 1990, something Mary Willoughby MDES attributes to a swell in job seekers at the end of the school year. Seasonally adjusted data is not available for counties.

The total number of unemployed in Lincoln County rose to 840, up from 710 in April. The total workforce is 14,400 and the number of employed is 13,560. The labor force is up slightly from last year, where it was 14,360 in May 2015. The total number of unemployed was higher at 940 and there were fewer jobs at 13,420.

Once again, Rankin County had the lowest unemployment rate at 4.2 percent. Jefferson County had the highest at 15.3 percent.

There were 74 new unemployment insurance claims in Lincoln County, up from the 42 new claims in April. There were 397 continued claims in May, up from the 324 in April.

The unemployment rate for May in Lincoln County is the lowest in that month it has been since 2006, when the unemployment rate was 5.5 percent.