By Rita Howell
Panola County’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in July, according to the latest figures from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. At 9.8 percent, the county’s jobless rate still ranks among the bottom third in the state, placing Panola 65th out of the 82 counties. The state’s unemployment rate for July was 6.9 percent, and the nation’s, 5.6.

Panola’s unemployment rate has generally held steady over the past three months, varying only a few tenths of a percentage point. The jobless figure for the county went from 10.2 in May to 9.9 in June and 9.8 in July.
However, the most recent figure shows significant improvement over a year ago, when Panola’s jobless rate was 12.1 percent. Five years ago, in July, 2010, the rate was 14.2.

MDES figures showed that 12,630 people in Panola County were employed in July, out of a labor force of 14,000.

In comparison with the six surrounding counties, the Panola unemployment rate was higher than Tate (7.5), Lafayette (5.8), Yalobusha (7.8) and Tallahatchie (8.0), and lower than Quitman (12.3) and Tunica (10.7)

Rankin County has the state’s lowest unemployment rate, 3.9, and Issaquena has the highest, at 17.1 percent.