[8/30/01]After a slight rise in June, the unemployment rate in Warren County took a dive in July and remains near record lows.

The Mississippi Employment Security Commission reported the rate in Warren County for July was 3.3 percent, down from 4.1 in June.

The statewide rate also fell from a rate of 5.3 percent in June to 4.7 percent in July. The national rate for July was also 4.7 percent, the same as it was in June.

“I can’t identify anything specific” for the improvement in the unemployment rate, said Bill Ray of the Vicksburg office of the MESC.

The rate is based on the number of people who are actively seeking work but are unable to find jobs.

Ray said he believes Warren County’s continued low is because of its strong and diversified economy.

In June, Warren County ranked 15th among the 82 counties and July’s drop in the number of people looking for jobs improved the ranking to 14th.

Though Issaquena County improved its jobless rate to 11.9 percent, compared to 15.2 percent in June, it still maintained its ranking of 79th.

Sharkey and Claiborne counties also saw improvements in unemployment. Sharkey improved from 11.7 percent to 8.3 percent and Claiborne improved from 10.5 percent to 8.1 percent.

State officials attributed the improvement in the state’s rate in July to the gain of 5,600 agricultural jobs that month. This was in spite of the loss of 2,100 jobs in manufacturing. Gains in other sectors brought the total number of jobs in Mississippi up 7,600 got a total of 1,252,000 Mississippians working.