Hopkins County Falls to 2nd By Narrow Margin
After an extended period, Hopkins County can no longer claim to have the lowest jobless rate in the Northeast Texas/Texarkana Workforce Development Area. Franklin County unseated Hopkins County lst month for that, but Hopkins County is a close second with only 0.1 separating the two counties’ July 2021 unemployment rates, according to the latest Local Area Unemployment Statistics released on the Texas Workforce Commission on the Texas Labor Market Information website Friday morning.
Both counties, like all of Northeast Texas and the entire state for that matter reported less joblessness in July 2021 than in June 2021 and July of 2020. In Texas 6 percent of the labor force was unemployed, down 0.7 percent from June 2011 and down 3.6 percent from July of 2020. Northeast Texas Workforce Development Area didn’t decline quite as much, but did decrease from 6.7 to 6.1 percent from June to July 2021, and was down from 8.4 percent in July of 2020.
Franklin County added 48 people to the county’s labor force, increaseing it to 5,320, and had 67 more people who gained jobs in July 2021, leaving 244 unemployed people im that county as of July 31, 2021. That’s 19 fewer Franklin County residents unemployed in July 2021 than just one month before., giving Franklin County a July 2021 unemployment rate of 4.6 percent, down from 5 percent in 2021 and 6 percent in July 20210, when the labor force consisted on only 4,913, 296 of whom were not employed during July 2020.
Hopkins County’s July 2021 unemployment rate was 4.7 percent, down from 5.3 percentin June 2021 and 6.0 in Juy 2020. It should be noted the unemployment rate was attained while adding 104 people to the labor force. Overall, 16,611 of the 17,426 labor frce in Hopkins County were employed, up from 16,400 of the 17,322 labor force who were employed in June 2021. The Hopkins County labor force last month was still 104 people shy of the June 2020 labor force, whent 16,476 of the 17,530 labor force had jobs. The 4.7 percent unemployment rate is the second lowest so far n 2021, the lowest was 4.6 percent in April 2021, which was still not good as the historic 2.7 percent unemployment rate recorded in April 2021 and repated in May of 2019. The July 2021 unemployment rate is also still far below the 7.8 percent recorded in April 2020, the month so many businesses were ordered by the government to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the world, including Texas and Hopkins County starting in mid-March of 2020, as well as the 22-year record of 8.4 percent recorded in June of 2011 for Hopkins County.
Neighboring Delta County has the next lowest unemployment rate of 5.3 percent for July 2021, down from 5.7 percent in June 2021 and 6.8 percent just one year ago. This county had 15 fewer members of its labor force from June to July 2021, and had 7 fewr than in July 2020.. That left 244 without employment in July 2021 compared to 263 without jobs in June 2021 and 296 unemployed in July 2020.
Lamar County added 206 workers to its labor force, but still managed to lower its unemployment rate from 8.3 percent 1 year ago to 6.3 percentin June 2021 and 5.7 percent last mont.
Morris County continued to have the highest unemployment rate in the Northeast Texas area and Texarkana Local Areas Unemployment area, dropping from 14.5 percfent in July 2020, when 701 of the 4,827 workers in the labor force were unemployed, to 12.1 percent with 546 of the 4,505 labor force unemployed in June 2021. Last month, despite adding 13 people to the labor force, Morris County reduced its unemployment rate to 11.4 percent with 514 of still unemployed in July 2021.
Titus County’s unemployment rate declined from 8.3 percet in 2020 to 6.7 percent in June 2021 and 6 percent last month. Bowie and Red River Counties each posted a jobless rate of 6.2 percent for July 2021. Bowie County’s unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in July of 2020 and 6.8 percent in June 2021. Red River County’s unemployment rate declined from 7. 4 percent in July 2020 and 6.6 percent in June 2021. Rounding out the WDA, Cass County’s unemployment rate fell from 9.2 percent in July 2020 to 8..0 percent in June 2021 and 7.1 percent last month.
