Missouri's unemployment rate increased by a tenth of a percentage point for the second month in a row, from 4.2 percent in May to 4.3 percent in June.
The state's unemployment increased by more than 4,000 people from 129,037 in May to 133,380 in June, according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center's monthly jobs report.
Unemployment has been on a slight incline since April, when Missouri reached its lowest rate since the start of the pandemic at 4.1 percent.
The slight increase in unemployment continues to be a result of supply shortages in the manufacturing industry, which led to last month's slight increase as well, according to the report.
"The increase of two-tenths of a percentage point over the last two months appears to be related to a temporary shortage in the supply of semiconductor chips, which caused production slowdowns in some manufacturing industries," the report states.
The national unemployment rate also rose 0.1 percent from 5.8 percent in May to 5.9 percent in June.
Unemployment is down 108,618 people from this time last year, when COVID-19 caused a spike in job losses and the state had an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent. Missouri experienced its peak unemployment rate of 12.5 percent at the start of the pandemic in April 2020.
Employment in Missouri, however, also increased for June.
In June, the state's employment stood at 2,823,400 jobs, up 4,200 from May's employment.
Construction and manufacturing saw an increase of 200 jobs from May to June, according to the report, which helped offset layoffs in vehicle manufacturing caused by semiconductor chip shortages.
"Meanwhile, service- providing industries gained 4,000 jobs between May and June 2021, with increases in professional & business services (+2,700 jobs) and leisure & hospitality (+1,600 jobs) at least partially attributable to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions," the report states. "However, not every major industry group shared in the increase, with educational and health service losing 900 jobs over the month."
In Jefferson City, employment stood at 78,400 in June, an increase of 1,100 jobs from May and more than 3,000 jobs from June of last year.