Lincoln County’s unemployment rate was below the state and national averages for August.

Both the Mississippi and U.S. average were 3.8 percent. Lincoln County had 3.6 percent of eligible workers out of a job during the month.

Statewide, 47,200 people were unemployed and 1,257,200 were employed. Across the nation, 6.256 million people were unemployed from a total labor force of 164.971 million.

In Mississippi, the jobless rate is down from 4.4 and 4.5 percent in the previous two months, and significantly lower than one year ago, when the rate was 5.7 percent for August 2021.

In Lincoln County, 520 people said they were looking for work in August, but unable to find a job. The county’s labor force is 14,580. The labor force was counted as 15,010 in July, 470 more than the following month. July also had 620 people listed as jobless, or 4.1 percent. One year ago, the county’s jobless rate was 5.3 percent, with 780 people out of 13,900 making jobless claims.

Counties bordering Lincoln had rates ranging from 4.3 to 14.3 percent — Copiah, 4.3; Walthall, 4.7; Lawrence, 4.8; Franklin, 4.9; Pike, 4.9; Amite, 5.2; and Jefferson, 14.3.

Jefferson held the bottom spot in all 82 counties for percentage. The next closest was Claiborne County at 9 percent. Each county only had 270 or 260 people unemployed, respectively, but have small labor forces. Jefferson’s is 1,880 and Claiborne’s worker pool is 2,900.

The counties with the lowest jobless percentages were Rankin and Union, each with 2.7 percent. Though low percentages, Union County had 400 unemployed from a labor force of 14,510; and Rankin County had 2,050 unemployed from a labor force of 75,640.

Issaquena County has the smallest labor force, at only 300 people. In August, 20 of those were unemployed, so the county’s jobless rate was 6.6 percent. In contrast, Hinds County had 3,960 unemployed. Since the county’s labor force is 100,760, however, the jobless rate was only 3.9 percent.

Monthly estimates of the labor force, employment, unemployment and the unemployment rate are generated by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics Program, a cooperative program between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and State Employment Security Agencies.