Crawford County Registering Historic Lows In Unemployment Rate

Crawford County is seeing historic lows in unemployment, which is matching statewide trends.

As of June 2022, the unemployment rate was just 2.5%, the lowest on record since at least November 2008 — the furthest back the Department of Labor’s online records go.

The county has seen several months of a 2.6% rate through the last four years.

In June, just 44 initial claims were made.

County unemployment was 5% in June 2021, but gradually fell to 2.7% by September.

It bounced back and forth before rising to 4.4% in January 2022.

The rate has steadily fallen throughout the year.

It went from 3.9% in March to 2.6% in April, then lurched upwards to 3% in May.

July 

County numbers have not been released for July, but the state said Aug. 17 that unemployment is at its lowest level since record-keeping began.

Employment increased by 24,800 jobs from June to July, dropping the rate to 2.5%.

From July 2021 to July 2022, the state has seen an increase of 52,500 jobs.

The unemployment rate fell 1.8% over this time.

The largest gain was in professional and business services (20,400 jobs).

Leisure and hospitality (12,500 jobs) and mining, logging and construction (8,500 jobs) were the other two big gainers.

Missouri’s labor force participation rate was 62.5% in July, down 0.5 points compared to June.