Missouri’s unemployment rate remains near 3 percent, shows stronger growth that U.S. in some sectors

Missouri’s employment rate dropped another tenth of a percent between September 2018 and September 2019, adding more than 32,000 jobs in that time.

The sectors that showed improvement were education and health services, construction, retail trade, and leisure and hospitality

Jacqueline Michael-Midkiff, regional economist with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, says the state’s unemployment rate got this low back in 1999. The state’s numbers have hovered around three percent since March of 2018, reflecting not only growth but because there are too few candidates in the workforce to fill the jobs, according to the U.S. Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey.

“There is less than one worker per job opening, so when we look at the unemployed workers and the job opening that are out there it would be very difficult to fill the job openings that we have right now.”

As Missourinet has reported, the state’s construction industry is in demand, yet so are construction workers.

Michael-Midkiff says Missouri grew faster than the rest of the U.S. in four major industry sectors: manufacturing, retail trade, financial activities and leisure and hospitality.

Since early 2010, the state’s unemployment rate has been steadily falling — as the country recovered from a severe recession. Not all of Missouri’s economic drivers have recovered, says Michael Midkiff. Manufacturing and construction are not at pre-recession levels as well as telecommunications and internet industries.

Data courtesy of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics