Unemployment appeared to take a substantial jump for January, but  the Mississippi Department of Employment Security says the figures  aren’t strictly comparable to any from 2012.

The unadjusted unemployment rate for Panola County in January is  13.4 percent, which they say can’t be compared to December’s 11.2  percent.

According to the MDES, annually at this time of year work is  performed to revise labor force estimates from previous years. Rather  than further delay release of the January information, the decision  was made to publish the unrevised 2012 data along with the  preliminary January 2013 estimates.

They add that revised data for 2012 should be released in time for  the February or March 2013 estimates. At that time, comparison of  data across years will be valid.

The most recent MDES figures show a labor force of 15,560 in the  county with 13,480 currently employed. That leaves 2,080 people out  of work.

Keeping in mind that these figures aren’t comparable, the MDES  estimated the December labor force at 16,180 with 14,360 employed.  That left 1,820 people unemployed.

The labor force is defined by MDES as the estimated number of people  eligible for work or actively looking for work.

Just three years ago in January 2010, the unemployment rate was 14.9  percent. And, just two years before that in January 2008, the rate was almost a third less at 9.0 percent.

One comparison that can be made is to the six surrounding counties where the Panola  unemployment rate was less than Tunica (20.9), Tallahatchie (14.9) and Quitman (15.9); but more than Lafayette (9.0), Yalobusha (11.6) and Tate (10.2).

Assuming that the unemployment insurance claims figures are not  estimates and are comparable, initial claims went down over the  month, going from 248 in December to 170 in January. Continuing  claims also dropped slightly from 1,867 in December to 1,820 in January.

Mississippi’s unadjusted unemployment rate for January 2013 was 10.7  percent and the nations’s was 8.5 percent.

For the month of January 2013, only 24 counties in Mississippi  posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of  10.7 percent.

Rankin County posted the lowest unemployment rate for  the month of January at 6.6 percent.
Fourteen counties reported rates  greater than 15.0 percent.

Tunica County had the highest unemployment rate for January at 20.9 percent.