Jobless rate ranks among state’s lowest

DeSoto County’s unemployment rate for October is listed by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) as 2.7 percent, the fifth-lowest rate among Mississippi counties.  

The four counties above DeSoto County are Lafayette (2.4), Lamar (2.5), Rankin (2.5) and Madison (2.6).  

The statewide unemployment for October is 3.4 percent, the same as the national unemployment rate. Other nearby counties include Tate (3.2), Marshall (3.5), and Tunica (4.4). 

The preliminary October figures show DeSoto County has 92,260 residents employed and 2,600 listed as not employed. The 2.7 percent unemployment rate is lower than September’s 2.9 percent jobless figure, MDES said, and is also lower than October of last year, when 3.3 percent of the workforce was not working.  

Over the past five years, October’s unemployment figure in DeSoto County has ranged from the 2022 figure of 2.7 percent to 4.7 percent in the COVID-19 pandemic year of 2020.