Springfield unemployment rate rises

The Springfield metropolitan statistical area's unemployment rate was up in January on a month-to-month and year-to-year basis.

The five-county Springfield MSA's jobless rate in January was 4.2%, up from a revised rate of 3.9% in December, according to a news release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The January 2020 unemployment rate was 3.5% for the MSA comprising Greene, Christian, Webster, Polk and Dallas counties.

All eight Missouri MSAs measured by the BLS posted higher unemployment rates in January compared with December. The BLS data is not seasonally adjusted.

The MSAs and their January unemployment rates are:
• Columbia, 3.8%, up from 3.4% in December;
• Jefferson City, 3.9%, up from 3.4%;
• Springfield, 4.2%, up from 3.9%;
• St. Joseph, 4.3%, up from 3.9%;
• Cape Girardeau, 4.6%, up from 4.2%
• Joplin, 4.6%, up from 4.3%;
• Kansas City, 5.2%, up from 4.5%; and
• St. Louis, 5.5%, up from 5.1%.

Missouri's unemployment rate in January came to 5.1%, up from 4.6% in December. The state's January 2020 jobless rate was 4%, according to the release.

Nationally, compared with the same month a year earlier, January unemployment rates were higher in 376 of the 389 MSAs measured by the BLS, lower in nine and unchanged in four.