While unemployment rates across the state and Northeast Texas increased 1.3 percent in September, the unemployment rate in the Texarkana/Northeast Texas area as a whole only increased 0.6 percent. Hopkins and Delta Counties had the lowest September unemployment rate (5,8 percent) in the area, according to LAUS, local area area unemployment statistics reported by Texas Workforce Commission in the Texas Labor information report.
Texas Workforce Commission on Oct. 16 reported 7.7 percent of the civilian labor force across the country was looking for work, a decrease of 0.8 percent from August and 4.4 percent higher than in September of 2019.
Texas’ unemployment rate, however, was 0.6 percent higher than the national unemployment. The unemployment rate in all 9 counties in the Northeast Texas Workforce Development Area (WDA)/Texarkana LAUS, which includes Hopkins County, also rose from August to September.
TWC attributed the increase in the unemployment rates to the civilian labor force shrinking as the number of individuals actively looking for work contracted.
“Texas employers added 40,700 jobs despite the increase in individuals exiting the labor force which also includes the self-employed. This marks the fifth consecutive month of job growth since measures taken to control the spread of corona virus began. The monthly job increase exceeded September 2019, when 12,800 jobs were added,” an Oct. 16 TWC press release states.
In September of 2020, 8.3 percent of 1,177 of Texas’ civilian labor force of 14,208 was unemployed. That’s still 4.9 percent higher than in September of 2019, when 482.8 of the 14,111.3 civilian labor force as unemployed.
In the Northeast Texas region, unemployment rose from 6.1 percent in August 2020 to 7.4 percent in September 2020, with 9,218 of the 124,497 labor force reported by TWC to be unemployed in September 2020. That’s 3.6 percent higher than in September of 2019, when 3.8 percent or 4,765 of civilian labor force of 124,845 in NE Texas were seeking work, according to the TWC data.
In the Texarkana LAUS area, 4,791 of the civilian labor force (CLF) of 64,815 (7.3 percent) were unemployed in September 2020, which is 0.6 percent more than in August 2020, when 4,439 of the CLF of 65,931 were unemployed. In September of 2019, the unemployment rate was 4.1 percent the Texarkana area, with only 2,662 of the 65,295 CLF unemployed
Hopkins and Delta counties had the lowest unemployment rate in the NET/Texarkana LAUS area in September 2020.
Hopkins County’s unemployment rate rose from 4.6 percent in August 2020 to 5.8 percent in September 2020. Hopkins County’s CLF shrunk from 17,451 in August to 17,180 in September of 2020. Last month, 990 people in Hopkins County were unemployed, compared to September 2019 when only 508 of 17661 CLF were unemployed (2.9 percent) and August 2020 (when 795 people were unemployed.
Delta County’s September 2020 unemployment rate also as 5.8 percent, up from 4.8 percent (the second lowest) in August 2020. The CLF decreased from 2,418 in August to 2,379 in September 2020. Only 115 were unemployed in August 2020, but that 137 were unemployed last month. The unemployment rate in Delta County was 3.5 percent in September 2019 (the 4th lowest), when 85 of the 2,456 CLF were reported to be unemployed.
Unemployment in Franklin County was 6.1 percent in September, up from 5 percent in August 2020 and 3.5 percent in September 2019.
Lamar County’s unemployment rate rose from 5.7 percent in August 2020 to 6.9 percent in September 2020. The unemployment rate in September 2020 was 3.2 percent in Lamar County.
Unemployment in Morris County spiked from 11.2 percent in August to 14 percent in September, more than the state high of 13.5 percent reported in April 2020 at the peak of the COVID-19 shutdowns. Morris County’s CLF rose from 4,980 in August to 5,106 in September 2020. The number of unemployed in Morris County rose from 556 in August to 701 last month The CLF in September 2019 was 4,853, with 246 or 5.2 percent unemployed.
Cass County had the second worst unemployment rate in the region in September. The labor force shrunk from 12,641 in August to 12,538 last month. The number of people seeking jobs rose from 918 in August (7.3 percent) to 1,101 last month (8.8 percent). Unemployment rate in September 2020 was still more than double that of Sept. 2019, when only 525 of the 12,435 CLF (4.2 percent) were unemployed.
