State unemployment statistics

DED reports on state employment picture from dismal February

Posted 3/24/21

Missouri non-farm payroll employment decreased in February 2021, according to the Missouri Department of Economic Development — the result of deteriorating weather conditions.  

Some …

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State unemployment statistics

DED reports on state employment picture from dismal February

Posted

Missouri non-farm payroll employment decreased in February 2021, according to the Missouri Department of Economic Development — the result of deteriorating weather conditions. 

Some statistics to ponder: 

• Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell a tenth of a percentage point.

• Employment, seasonally adjusted, decreased by 11,600 jobs for February with 130,500 over-the year job losses.

• Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in February 2021, down from 4.3 percent in January 2021. 

The labor market still showed substantial losses over the year, but may show improvement in the coming months as vaccines for COVID-19 become available, according to the DED.

In DED’s review of February, Missouri’s “smoothed seasonally adjusted unemployment rate” decreased by a tenth of a percentage point in February 2021, dropping to 4.2 percent from the benchmarked January 2021 rate of 4.3 percent.

‘The COVID-19 effect’

Due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the February 2021 rate was 0.6 percentage points higher than the February 2020 rate. 

The rate had reached a low of 3.1 percent in July 2018, before gradually edging up to 3.5 percent by the end of 2019, and then to 3.7 percent in March 2020. 

The COVID-19 effect hit in April 2020, spiking the rate to 12.5 percent. The rate decreased monthly for the rest of 2020, reaching 4.3 percent in January and below the national rate.

Any slightly less worse news?

DED estimate 128,934 Missourians were  out of work in February 2021 —a drop of 1,615 from January (130,549).

Missouri’s “not-seasonally-adjusted rate” was 5.0 percent in February 2021 — also down a tenth of a point from January 2021 rate of 5.1 percent. The corresponding not-seasonally-adjusted national rate for February 2021 was 6.6 percent.

A year ago, the state’s seasonally adjusted rate was 3.6 percent, and the not-adjusted rate was 3.8 percent.

Still want to read more? 

See the full report at https://meric.mo.gov/