Unemployment rose slightly in Hopkins County from December 2020 to January 2021, but Hopkins County’s 5.4 percent unemployment rate was still the lowest in the Northeast Texas Workforce Development Area in January 2021. That’s also below the state unemployment rate of 7.3 percent and WDA unemployment rate of 7.1 percent.
According to Texas Work Force Commission and Texas Labor Market Index’s Local Area Unemployment Statistics, 953 people out of the 17,728 labor force (LF) in Hopkins County were unemployed in Hopkins County in January 2021, up from 859 of 17,744 seeking employment in December 2020, and 558 of 17,725 who were unemployed in January 2020. That’s 0.6 percent more people unemployed from December to January, and 2.3 percent more unemployed in Hopkins County than one year ago.
In the Northeast Texas (Texarkana) Workforce Development Area, Delta County has the smallest labor force (2,440) and second lowest unemployment rate 5.7 percent (140 unemployed) in January 2020. That’s up the 4.9 percent (120 people) who were unemployed in December 2020 and 3.6 percent (87 people) who were unemployed in January 2020.
Franklin County had the third smallest labor force (4,952) in January 2020 and the third lowest unemployment rate of 5.9 percent (290 people) in January 2020, which is 0.4 percent higher than in December 2020 when 269 of 4,901 LF were unemployed and 2.5 percent higher than in January 2020 when 163 of 4,736 LF were unemployed.
The only other county in NET WDA with an unemployment rate under 7 percent was Titus County, a county with a labor force of 13,521, including 898 who were unemployed (6.6 percent) in January 2020. That’s up from 6.3 percent in December 2020 and 4.3 percent in January 2020.
Morris County, which has the second smallest labor force (4,745), continued to have the highest unemployment rate of 13.8 percent. In January 2021, 653 were unemployed in Morris County, up from 633 of 4,742 LF who were unemployed (13.3 percent) in December 2020 and 275 of 4,802 LF in January 2020 who were unemployed (5.7 percent).
Bowie County, which has the largest labor force (38,911), and Lamar County, which had the second largest labor force in the NET WDA (23,827), both had an unemployment rate of 7.0 percent; Bowie county had 2,743 unemployed and Lamar 1,658 unemployed in January 2020. That’s up from 6.3 percent (2,452 of 39,163 LF) in December 2020 and 4.2 percent (1,656 of 39,422 LF) in January 2020 in Bowie County. For Lamar County, that’s up from 6.1 percent (1,465 of 23,895 LF) in December 2020 and 3.5 percent (824 of 23,721 LF).
The second highest unemployment rate in the area was 8.7 percent (1,067 of 12,333 LF) in Cass County, which is up from 4.7 percent in January 2020 and 8.1 percent in January 2020.
Also in the NET WDA, Red River County’s unemployment rate is up from 4.8 percent in January 2020, 6.3 percent in December 2020.
Around the region, Hunt County which is in the North Central WDA had an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent (2,888 out of 44,289 LF) in January 2021, up from 5.8 percent in December 2020 and 3.6 percent in January 2020. Nearby Rains County, located in East Texas WDA, was the only county around that had a better January 2021 unemployment rate than Hopkins County. Rains County’s January 2021 unemployment rate of 4.6 percent (284 of 6,217 LF) was an increase of 0.04 percent from December 2020 and 1.5 percent from January 2020. Wood County’s 6.8 percent unemployment rate (1,233 of 18,188 LF) was 0.7 percent higher than in December 2020 and 2.6 percent higher than in January 2020.
