Springfield area jobless rate drops to 6.1%

With 13,600 unemployed in April, the jobless rate in the five-county Springfield area is equal with the Joplin market rate and below the state’s 6.9 percent unemployment rate last month. The civilian work force in the Springfield MSA – comprising Greene, Christian, Webster, Dallas and Polk counties – was 223,100 in April.

Since March 2011, Missouri’s unemployment rate has come down from 9 percent, the report said, and Columbia posted the lowest rate, 4.5 percent, in April.

The April jobless rates across the MSAs statewide:

• Columbia, 4.5 percent;
• Jefferson City, 5.6 percent;
• St. Joseph, 5.8 percent;
• Springfield, 6.1 percent;
• Joplin, 6.1 percent;
• Cape Girardeau-Jackson, 6.3 percent;
• Kansas City, 6.6 percent;
• St. Louis, 7.4 percent; and
• Missouri, 6.9 percent.