Missouri's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped slightly during March to 3.7% from a 3.9% level in February. This rate is 0.2 percentage points higher than March of 2000. The national unemployment rate rose 0.1% points to 4.3% in March 2001 from 4.2% in February. Four of Missouri's neighboring states had lower unemployment rates during the past month. These include Iowa (2.8%), Nebraska (3.0%), Oklahoma (3.1%), and Kansas (3.7%).
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 the highest levels of unemployment continue to be clustered in three main regions: (1) Southeast Missouri; (2) the Lake of the Ozarks; and (3) north central Missouri along U.S. Highway 36. A fourth region of extremely high unemployment persists in the Branson region, due to seasonal effects in the tourism and entertainment industries. Eighteen counties had unemployment rates that were 7.0% or higher. Those with the highest rates include Stone (17.0%), Taney (13.3%), Macon (10.6%), Wayne (9.2%), Hickory (8.8%), Reynolds (8.8%), Douglas (8.5%), and Mississippi (8.5%).
Conversely, there are several pockets of very low unemployment, scattered throughout the state, mainly in metropolitan areas. Twelve counties had unemployment rates that were lower than 3.0%: Boone (1.4%), Nodaway (2.1%), Platte (2.1%), Cole (2.3%), St. Charles (2.3%), Atchison (2.5%), Clay (2.5%), Green (2.5%), St. Louis (2.8), Cass (2.9%), Perry (2.9%), and Phelps (2.9%).
Chart 1. Unemployment Rates,
Seasonally Adjusted, 1999-2001.
Source: Bureau of Labor
Statistics, US Department of Labor
Map 1. Unemployment Rates, Seasonally Unadjusted.
Source: Labor Market Information, Missouri
Department of Economic Development
