Springfield metro area's unemployment rate ticks up

The Springfield metropolitan statistical area’s unemployment rate moved up in November.

At 2.1 percent, the MSA’s jobless rate was above the 1.9 percent rate recorded in October, according to a news release issued this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The five-county Springfield MSA — comprising Greene, Christian, Webster, Polk and Dallas counties —  posted the third-lowest unemployment rate in November among the eight metro areas in Missouri.

Missouri’s MSAs, in order of November unemployment rates, are:
    •    Columbia, 1.8 percent, up from 1.6 percent;
    •    Jefferson City, 2 percent, up from 1.8 percent;
    •    Springfield, 2.1 percent, up from 1.9 percent;
    •    Joplin, 2.3 percent, up from 2.1 percent;
    •    St. Joseph, 2.3 percent, up from 2.1 percent;
    •    Cape Girardeau, 2.4 percent, up from 2.2 percent;
    •    Kansas City, 2.7 percent, flat; and
    •    St. Louis, 2.9 percent, up from 2.8 percent.

Missouri’s unemployment rate rose to 2.5 percent in November from 2.3 percent in October. That compares with a 3.7 percent jobless rate nationwide that month, according to the BLS data, which is not seasonally adjusted.

Compared with the same month of 2017, November unemployment rates were lower in 290 of the 388 metro areas measured by the BLS, higher in 69 and unchanged in 29, according to the release.