Unemployment rate in Missouri drops to 10.1 percent

Major job losses in April due to COVID-19 saw shutdowns that touched nearly every sector of Missouri’s labor market. Thankfully, in May Missouri began to see slight improvement regarding labor numbers.

Some revisions were made to the seasonal adjustment factors for statewide employment and unemployment estimates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to a news release from the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

As a result of these revisions, the April 2020 seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was revised upward from 9.7 percent to 10.2 percent, while there was no revision to the not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate. In addition, the Missouri seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March 2020 was revised downward to 3.9 percent, putting it below the national unemployment rate for that month, the release said.

After season adjustment, employment in Missouri increased by 32,900 jobs in one month, according to the release, saying, “Missouri’s smoothed seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased by a tenth of a percentage point in May 2020, decreasing to 10.1 percent from a revised April 2020 rate of 10.2 percent.”