Southeast Missouri unemployment rate continues downward trend, lowest claims in Cape County since the pandemic

Unemployment in Cape Girardeau County fell to 2.2% in September, the lowest monthly jobless rate since September 2019, when it was also 2.2%, according to the most recent figures from the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR).

The one-month drop is seven-tenths of one percent from August's 2.9%.

September's jobless claims totaled 144 in Cape Girardeau County, the lowest since 139 filed in pre-pandemic February 2020.

The lowest county unemployment rate of the last 13 years was 1.9%, achieved in October 2018, with the highest rate over the period, 8.2% in January 2011.

Other counties — September

• Bollinger: 2.5%, down from 3.3% in August.
• Madison: 2.8%, down from 3.8% in August.
• Mississippi: 2.9%, down from 4.1% in August.
• Perry: 1.9%, down from 2.6% in August.
• Scott: 2.4%, down from 3.2% in August.

MSA

The Cape Girardeau, MO-IL metropolitan statistical area (MSA) posted 44,400 jobs in September, down 100 from August — but up 900, or 2.1%, compared to September 2020.

The data from the state DLIR are non-farm seasonally adjusted figures.

The local MSA is 362nd out of 384 in the U.S. and consists of Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties in Missouri and Alexander County in Illinois.

The federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced July 13 it would leave the minimum MSA population at 50,000 after facing criticism from small cities who feared loss of status and funding if the MSA minimum was raised to 100,000 — as originally proposed.

The Cape Girardeau, MO-IL MSA has 97,517 residents, according to the 2020 Census.

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