Unemployment in Missouri seems to have stabilized, according to the latest report from the state's Department of Economic Development.
Missouri's seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for September was 9.5 percent, unchanged from August and lower than the 9.8 percent national rate for the seventh consecutive month.
The state unemployment rate has remained in the 9.3 percent to 9.5 percent range since June after climbing sharply in the early part of the year. That mirrors the situation in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area, where unemployment rates have remained between 8.5 and 8.7 percent since June. September rates for individual MSAs are not yet available.
Payroll employment levels in most metro areas remained virtually unchanged, though St. Louis levels rose and Kansas City employment declined. Statewide, nonfarm payroll employment dipped by 3,000 jobs, with declines concentrated in durable goods manufacturing and accommodation and food services.
Meanwhile, DED is touting the job-related work it did in fiscal 2009 in a new report, "Competing in the 21st Century: Building the Workforce To Lead Missouri's Economic Transformation."
The report says that nearly 400,000 people received services through the 43 Missouri Career Centers statewide, up 70 percent from the previous year. Also in the report:
• 243 Missouri companies received assistance through the Missouri Customized Training Program to train 32,468 workers;
• 22,074 people received Workforce Investment Act-funded career assistance services;
• 24,007 veterans received employment assistance; and
• More than 7,800 Missouri youth received on-the-job training and work experience from more than 2,100 employers through the Next-Generation Jobs Team.
"These successes would not be possible without the strong partnerships between (Missouri Division of Workforce Development), local work force investment boards, employers, organized labor and community colleges," DWD Director Julie Gibson said in a news release.
Under construction beside the existing Republic branch of the Springfield-Greene County Library District – which remains in operation throughout the project – is a new building that will double the size of the original, according to library officials.
