April jobless rate falls throughout Missouri

New data released late last week by the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations shows a continuing decline in unemployment rates in virtually every Missouri county.

While the new numbers indicate more Missourians are returning to work as the state recovers from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, some economists say a shrinking workforce is also a contributing factor as some working-age Missourians who had previously been in the workforce chose not to seek employment in April.

For April, the most recent month for which data is available, Cape Girardeau County's jobless rate stood at 3.2%, down from 3.7% in March, and matching the county's pre-pandemic rate of 3.2% in February 2020.

Also in April, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in Cape County dropped to 389, marking the first month this year the county's initial jobless claims has fallen below 400.

In the adjoining counties of Bollinger, Perry and Scott, the unemployment percentages also dropped in April compared to March. Bollinger County's rate fell almost a full percentage point, from 4.4% to 3.5%, Perry County saw a half-percentage point decrease, from 3.4% to 2.9%, and in Scott County the rate fell from 4.1% to 3.5%.

Elsewhere in Southeast Missouri, the April unemployment rates compared to March percentages were:

• Butler — 4.3%, down from 5.3%.
• Dunklin — 5.4%, down from 6.3%.
• Iron — 4.8%, down from 6.2%.
• Madison — 4.0%, down from 4.5%.
• Mississippi — 4.1%, down from 4.7%.
• New Madrid — 4.1%, down from 4.5%.
• Pemiscot — 7.1%, down from 7.7%.
• Ripley — 4.8%, down from 5.6%.
• St. Francois — 4.7%, down from 5.3%.
• Ste. Genevieve — 2.7%, down from 3.6%.
• Stoddard — 4.2%, down from 4.7%.
• Wayne — 4.4%, down from 5.1%.

At 1.9%, Gentry County in Northwest Missouri, had the state's lowest unemployment rate in April, while Taney County, in which Branson is located, was the county with the state's highest jobless rate in April, checking in at 9.2%, a slight increase from that county's 9.1% rate in March, but far below its peak unemployment rate of 24.5% in April 2020.

Missouri had an overall unemployment rate of 4.1% in April, according to the state labor department. Nationwide, the April unemployment rate was 6.1%, up slightly from 6.0% in March, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics.

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