Missouri has had a quick bounce back from the COVID-19 unemployment spike, partially because of a smaller labor force.
A several month trend of declining unemployment has brought the state to a 3.5 percent unemployment rate for November. It's the same rate seen in January and February 2020, the last reported figures before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state in March 2020.
Unemployment soared amid the pandemic, reaching a peak of 12.5 percent in April 2020.
The number of jobless Missourians declined for the remaining eight months of 2020, reaching 4.4 percent in December. A year later, the state has returned to an unemployment rate experienced before the pandemic.
The new unemployment rate, which the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center announced Wednesday, is 1.2 percent lower than the November 2020 figure.
Veronica Gielazauskas, assistant commissioner with the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, said there are a lot of factors that go into creating an unemployment estimate, but the state is "at or below pre-pandemic levels."
One of the reasons, Gielazauskas said, is a smaller workforce around the state.
"Comparing to February 2020, which was the last full month of data prior to the start of the pandemic, the size of the civilian labor force is smaller by 38,921, due to both fewer individuals counted as employed and fewer counted as unemployed," she said.
A smaller labor force also means it's more difficult for employers to find employees, Gielazauskas said, which leads to more available job openings around the state.
The state remains below the national unemployment rate of 4.2 percent for November.
Approximately 73,300 jobs have been recovered since November of last year.
Of those 73,300 jobs, 29,800 come from the leisure and hospitality sector, 25,500 come from professional and business services, and 12,900 come from trade, transportation and utilities.
Manufacturing has added 5,900 jobs since this time last year and educational and health services have added another 5,000 jobs. Approximately 300 government jobs were added.
The financial activities and information sectors had the biggest employment declines during the past year, losing 9,600 jobs and 1,800 jobs, respectively.
From October to November of this year, employment grew by 7,600 jobs as both goods- producing and service-providing industries saw gains.
Those gains have brought the state unemployment rate down from 3.7 percent in October to 3.5 percent in November. An estimated 108,380 Missourians remain unemployed.
Despite manufacturing businesses losing more than 2,900 jobs, goods-producing industries gained 500 jobs across the state from October to November.
Service-providing industries gained a total of 7,100 jobs at the same time. The biggest gains around the state were in professional and business services with 3,100 jobs added, trade, transportation and utilities with 3,000 jobs added, and leisure and hospitality with 1,600 jobs added.
In Jefferson City, employment has increased by 300 jobs since October's 78,200 employment figure.
The biggest increase has been in trade, transportation and utilities, which added 700 jobs in Jefferson City from October to November. Private service-providing businesses saw the biggest employment declines, dipping by 100 jobs over the month.
Gielazauskas said MDHEWD hopes for current employment trends to continue and more Missourians join or return to the labor force.