Missouri’s Unemployment Ticks Higher in May

The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center calls this month’s unemployment rate “smoothed”. To be more accurate Missouri’s jobless rate has smoothed since January.

The May seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose by a tenth of one percent, ending at 4.2% from the April 2021 rate of 4.1%. The May 2021 rate was 5.4 percentage points lower than the May 2020 rate.

The pandemic affected the Missouri unemployment rate causing a spike in April 2020, when it topped out at 12.5%. The rate decreased monthly for the rest of 2020 at an impressive rate, reaching 4.4% in December. Since January the unemployment rate has gradually ticked downward. This tenth of a percentage increase in May appears to be related to a temporary shortage in the supply of semiconductor chips, which caused production slowdowns in some manufacturing industries.

Manufacturing jobs increased by 1,500 positions last month. These gains were enough to offset an employment loss in motor vehicle manufacturing, which was hampered by a shortage of semiconductor chips for on-board computers.

The service industry lead the jobs gained numbers with 4,500 positions added. Professional and business services were next, adding 2,900 jobs; followed by leisure and hospitality adding 2,800 jobs, and educational and health services adding 2,500 jobs. Trade, transportation and utilities industries lost 3,800 jobs last month, and government employment showed little change over in May.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story