Springfield metro unemployment rate rises to start 2022

Last edited 7:54 a.m., March 21, 2022

The Springfield metropolitan statistical area's unemployment rate was up at the start of the year.

During January, the jobless rate for the local MSA comprising Greene, Christian, Webster, Polk and Dallas counties was 3.3%, according to a news release issued this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares with an upwardly revised 2.7% unemployment rate in December.

All eight of Missouri's MSAs posted increases in January unemployment rates compared with December.

The MSA unemployment rates for January are, from lowest to highest:
• Columbia, 3%, up from 2.3% in December;
• Jefferson City, 3.2%, up from 2.5%;
• Springfield, 3.3%, up from 2.7%:
• Joplin, 3.4%, up from 2.9%;
• St. Joseph, 3.4%, up from 2.8%;
• Kansas City, 3.5%, up from 2.9%;
• Cape Girardeau, 3.6%, up from 3%; and
• St. Louis, 4.3%, up from 3.6%.

Missouri's unemployment rate in January was 4.1%, up from 3.4% in December, according to the release. The BLS data is not seasonally adjusted.

Nationally, compared with the same month a year earlier, January unemployment rates were lower in 388 of the 389 metro areas measured by the BLS and higher in one. The Springfield MSA's January 2021 unemployment rate was 4.5%.