Unemployment in Missouri held steady in February. Missouri's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in February, unchanged from January. About 140,300 Missourians are estimated to have been unemployed in February.
Seasonally adjusted payroll employment is estimated to have decreased by 7,700 jobs from January, falling to 2,699,200. Manufacturing employment dropped by 2,000 jobs, service industry employment was down by 4,300 jobs, and construction employment remained steady. Retail trade was up 3,500 jobs, nearly two-thirds of which were in general merchandise stores. January and February are typically the highest unemployment months of the year.
The national unemployment rate decreased to 5.5 percent in February from 5.6 in January. Four of Missouri's neighboring states had lower unemployment rates during the last month. These include Iowa (3.4 percent), Nebraska (3.4 percent), Oklahoma (4.2 percent) and Kansas (4.4 percent).
Chart 1. Unemployment Rates, Seasonally Adjusted.
Source: Bureau of Labor
Statistics, US Department of Labor
Unemployment levels are not distributed evenly across Missouri, with pockets of high unemployment persisting in several areas (county-level rates are not seasonally adjusted). Counties with high unemployment levels are particularly pervasive in southeast, west central and north central Missouri. Fifty-two counties and St. Louis City had unemployment rates that were 6.0 percent or higher.
The highest unemployment rates were found in Stone (23.3 percent), Taney (20.2 percent), Wayne (13.7 percent), Reynolds (12.4 percent), Douglas (12.3 percent), Washington (11.0 percent), Wright (10.8 percent), Miller (10.6 percent) and Pemiscot (10.0 percent) counties.
Areas of lower unemployment are spread throughout the state with the greatest concentration of low unemployment in February in northwestern, southwestern and central Missouri counties. Three counties had unemployment rates below 3 percent.
The lowest unemployment rates were found in Boone (2.0 percent), Nodaway (2.4 percent) and Cole (2.5 percent) counties.
