From staff reports

news@joplinglobe.com

Most area counties in the past year have seen the unemployment rate jump a full percentage point, and in some cases more.

Unemployment for the Joplin Metropolitan Statistical Area — defined as Jasper and Newton counties — has gone from 4.3 percent in November 2007 to 5.3 percent last month.

With a labor force calculated at about 84,000 by the Missouri Department of Economic Development, a 1 percent increase in unemployment would amount to about 840 jobs lost in the two-county area.

Despite recent job losses, unemployment for the Joplin metro area remains below the 6.7 percent being reported statewide and nationally. In November, the United States lost 533,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Labor. That is the highest rate in at least 10 years.

Barton County has the highest unemployment rate in Southwest Missouri, at 10.1 percent. That stems from the closing in 2007 of the O’Sullivan Industries plant, which put more than 700 people out of work. Unemployment in Barton County climbed to a high of 13.5 percent last December.

Crawford County, Kan., which saw its largest private employer, Superior Industries, close earlier this month, putting 600 people out of work, reported unemployment of 5.7 percent for November. December figures will be released next month.

McDonald County reported the lowest unemployment rate in the region, at 4.3 percent.

Oklahoma officials will not release their November unemployment figures for area counties until January.