Unemployment rates in area drop in September

Missouri's Department of Labor and Industrial Relations released the state's unemployment data for September late last week and guess what? The unemployment rates for many parts of the state, including Cape Girardeau County, have dropped to pre-pandemic levels.

However, the state's overall jobless rate in September was about 1.5% higher than it was last winter and nearly 2% above the unemployment level at the same time last year. Meanwhile, the number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits is still more than twice what it was before the COVID-19 outbreak more than seven months ago.

According to the latest county-by-county unemployment data, Cape Girardeau County's jobless rate in September fell 2.5 percentage points, from 6% in August (and a high of 9.5% in April) to 3.5%. That's just slightly higher than the county's 3.2% unemployment rate in February a few weeks before the first wave of coronavirus filtered into Southeast Missouri.

But at 402, the number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits in Cape County during September was still more than two times the rate of the county's average monthly claims before the pandemic. In the 12 months before the pandemic, there were an average of about 150 monthly unemployment claims in the county.

Just to the south, in Scott County, the unemployment rate fell from 6.4% in August to 3.7% in September, less than half its 7.6% peak in April. The story was similar in Bollinger County, where the jobless rate declined more than two percentage points, from 6.3% in August to 4.2% in September, less than half that county's 9.6% rate in April.

But the region's lowest unemployment percentage in September was in Perry County, where the rate fell from 4.6% in August to 2.7% in September, more than 12 percentage points below that county's 14.8% rate in April. That high rate was no doubt the result of a slowdown in automotive manufacturing, which affected parts suppliers such as TG Missouri in Perryville, one of the region's largest employers.

Elsewhere in Missouri, the counties with September's lowest unemployment rates were Mercer and Scotland, both in northern Missouri, which both had unemployment rates of 1.9%.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the City of St. Louis had the state's highest unemployment rate in September, checking in at 7.1%.

At 6.4%, Taney County and the Branson area in Southwest Missouri had the highest county jobless rate in September, but it was a far cry below the county's 24.5% rate recorded in April.

In addition to the unemployment data for Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Perry and Scott counties, other Southeast Missouri counties had the following unemployment rates in September:

• Butler — 4.1%
• Carter — 3.7%
• Dunklin — 5.3%
• Iron — 4.7%
• Madison — 4.5%
• Mississippi — 3.7%
• New Madrid — 4.2%
• Pemiscot — 6.3%
• Ripley — 5.5%
• St. Francois — 5.0%
• Ste. Genevieve — 3.2%
• Stoddard — 3.4%
• Wayne — 4.2%

Missouri's overall unemployment rate in September stood at 4.9%, down from 7% in August and a high of 10.2% in April, but still 1.4 percentage points higher than the state's 3.5% rate in January and February and 1.8 percentage points above the 3.1% jobless percentage recorded in Missouri in September 2019.

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I'm a guy (duh) and I don't keep up with these things, but I understand the beauty industry is losing billions of dollars due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a sum, they say, that will take years to make up (please pardon the pun).

Seriously, data released last week by Fraicheur Paris said coronavirus has altered consumer behavior with regard to beauty products. According to Fraicheur, 90% of women say they use little or no makeup while working from home.

As a result, consumer retail spending on beauty products has experienced a decline of up to 20%, leading to a projected lost of $175 billion for the beauty industry overall.

"For the first time in decades, it seems that the long-term attractiveness of the beauty industry has been shaken up," according to the Fraicheur report, which said even the recession of 2008 had only a "minor impact" on overall revenue.

"As work from home and significantly reduced social activity is becoming the new norm, there seems to be less reason to purchase beauty and skin-care products," the report stated. "Beauty routines are trending toward lessened use of makeup as a large part of the consumer base is required to work from home."

I, too, continue to work from home, but the only thing I'm buying less of these days is razor blades (my "coronavirus beard" is entering its ninth month, although I do try to keep it trimmed).

My wife said she was not too surprised by Fraicheur's findings, although she admits to wearing lipstick under her face masks even though no one can see her lips.

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I don't know about you, but does it seem like the 2020 presidential campaign has lasted 20 years? It will (hopefully) come to a conclusion this week, although there is wide speculation about how long it will take to count and report the millions of absentee and mail-in ballots cast by the nation's electorate.

There's also a lot of speculation about the impact a Joe Biden presidency would have on the nation's economy — as well as your wallet — versus a second term for Donald Trump.

The personal finance website WalletHub released a couple of reports on the subject last week. The reports are far too long to print here, but if you're interested in reading them, regardless of whether you've voted or plan to vote before the polls close, here are the links:

• Impact of a second Trump term: www.wallethub.com/blog/what-if-trump-wins/80271
• Impact of a Biden presidency: www.wallethub.com/blog/what-if-biden-wins/80267

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Kudos to the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce, which conducted its annual membership drive last week (with a "Mask-erade" Halloween costume theme). From what I could see on social media, it looked like a successful campaign.

(Confidential to a certain Alliance Bank employee: Great makeup! You could be an extra on The Walking Dead!)

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