County Unemployment Rose In November

Crawford County’s unemployment rate rose in November — settling in at 4.1%.

The rate rose from 3.8% in October.

It was the first increase since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.

Initial claims rose from 140 in October to 175 in November, the highest since August.

According to data provided by the Missouri Department of Labor, the rate fell to 2.6% in September 2019 — the lowest in 12 years of records — then steadily increased.

It went from 2.8% in October 2019 to 3.8% the next month and continued to climb.

The rate held at 4.7% in January and February 2020 before COVID-19 began to rock the economy.

Crawford County’s unemployment went up to 5,8% in March and climbed even higher in April — 9.5%.

It was the highest since March 2012 — 9.6%.

Initial claims during April were 941.

The rate ticked down over the late spring and into summer. It fell to 9.3% in May, 8.3% in June, 7.5% in July, 7.3% in August and 4.2% in September.

Surrounding Counties

Crawford’s increase mirrored similar numbers in neighboring counties.

Dent County saw its rate climb nearly a half-point, going from 3.3% to 3.7%.

Franklin County increased from 3.7% to 3.8% and had 669 initial claims.

Gasconade County went from 3% in October to 3.4% in November.

Iron County reported an increase from 4.5% to 4.6%.

Phelps County increased from 3.1% to 3.5%.

Washington County was the only neighboring county to decline, going from 4.4% to 4.3%.

State

Missouri saw its unemployment stand at 4.4% with 37,053 initial claims made during the month.

During the week ending Jan. 2, there were 16,628 initial claims, the highest since July 11.

The Department of Labor said there were 6,310 people working in accommodation and food services that were unemployed.

There were 6,496 employees in the healthcare and social assistance industries that were unemployed