Fewer people were unemployed in Lincoln County in November than the previous month, even with a lower labor pool.

Thirty fewer people were in the labor force of 14,690 for the month, but 150 fewer people were looking for work. The Mississippi Department of Employment Security reported 810 people in the county — 5.5% of the work force — who said they were able and available for work, but unable to gain employment. These individuals do not include farm labor, full-time students or active military.

Lincoln County was one of 26 counties below the state average of 6% — 76,500 Mississippians were out of work, from a labor force of 1.28 million. Over the past six years, the county’s average was 5.1% for November.

The national average for November was 6.4% — 10.2 million Americans were unemployed from a labor force of 160.4 million. Both the state and national numbers were lower than the previous month (6.6% in Mississippi, 7% nationally) but higher than November 2019, when the state had a low average of 3.3% and the nation recorded 5.4% unemployment.

Rankin County retained its place with the lowest unemployment percentage at 3.7%, a drop from October’s 4.2%, and Lincoln County’s neighboring Jefferson County had the highest again at 16.4%, though down from October’s 17.2%.

Rankin County has one of the largest work forces in the state at 76,220 — 2,800 were unemployed in November. Jefferson County has one of the lowest work forces in Mississippi at 1,940 — 320 were unemployed.

Lincoln’s other bordering neighbors had the following November unemployment rates: Franklin 6.7%, Copiah 6.8%, Lawrence 7%, Walthall 7.3%, Amite 7.6% and Pike 7.9%. Each county’s unemployment numbers were down from the previous month.

Just 110 people filed initial unemployment insurance claims in Lincoln County for November — down from 150 in October — and 1,294 had continued claims — down from October’s 1,695. These numbers were still significantly higher than one year previous, when both initial and continued claims totaled only 228. Benefits paid in November totaled $167,505, down from $244,280 in October and up from $34,347 in November 2019.

WIN Job Center lobbies are currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Services are available, however, Monday-Friday 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. (4 p.m. on Wednesday) by calling 601-833-3511.

Monthly estimates of the labor force, employment, unemployment and unemployment rate are generated by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics Program, a cooperative effort between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and State Employment Security agencies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines an individual employed if they did any work at all for pay or profit during the survey week; this includes all part-time and temporary work as well as full time year round employment. Unemployed individuals are those who do not have a job, have actively looked for work during the past four weeks and are currently available for work. The sum of employed and unemployed produces the Civilian Labor Force.