By David Howell
Panola County’s 2010 unemployment rate is still dropping, going from 14.6 percent in March to 13.6 percent in April.

Unemployment in the county is still the highest it has been for April in the past five years, however, topping the April 2006 rate by almost seven percentage points.

And, it is up a point from the March 2009 rate of 11.6 percent, according to the latest numbers released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

The number of unemployed in Panola is based on a total labor pool of 14,780 people. Of that number, 2,020 are unemployed.

There are 25 counties in the state with a higher unemployment rate. The figures are based on the county of residence.

Mississippi’s unemployment rate for April was 10.7 percent, decreasing five-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month’s rate of 11.2 percent.

The nation’s unemployment rate of 9.5 percent for April was down seven-tenths of a percentage point over the month but was nine-tenths of a percentage point higher than the year-ago rate of 8.6 percent.

Results from Mississippi’s nonfarm employment survey, which is counted by the location of establishments, reported a not seasonally adjusted increase of 1,800 in employment over the month, but a decrease of 15,300 from one year ago.

For the month of April 2010, only 20 counties in Mississippi posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 10.7 percent.

Unemployment rates decreased or remained unchanged over the month in all but two counties.
Rankin County posted the lowest unemployment rate for the month of April at 6.9 percent followed by Lamar County at 7.4 percent.