Missouri non-farm payroll employment increased in January 2021, and the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased by a tenth of a percentage point. Employment, seasonally adjusted, increased by 5,900 jobs over the month, but over-the-year job losses were back above 100,000 following benchmark adjustments to 2020 estimates. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in January 2021, down from 4.4 percent in December 2020.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Missouri’s smoothed seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased by a tenth of a percentage point in January 2021, dropping to 4.3 percent from a benchmarked December 2020 rate of 4.4 percent. Missouri’s unemployment rate was below the national rate of 6.3 percent in January.
Due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 2021 rate was 0.7 percentage points higher than the January 2020 rate. The rate had reached a low of 3.1 percent starting in July 2018, before gradually edging up to 3.5 percent by the end of 2019, and then to 3.7 percent in March 2020. The COVID-19 effect hit in April 2020, spiking the rate to 12.5 percent for that month. The rate decreased monthly for the rest of 2020, reaching 4.4 percent in December.
Benchmarking revisions caused Missouri’s unemployment rate to be a tenth of a percentage point higher than the national rate in January and February of 2020, so Missouri’s streak of seasonally adjusted unemployment rates below the comparable national rates is now 11 consecutive months.
The estimated number of unemployed Missourians was 130,822 in January 2021, down by 4,290 from December 2020’s 135,112.
The state’s not-seasonally-adjusted rate was 5.1 percent in January 2021, up by 0.5 percentage points from the December 2020 not-seasonally-adjusted rate of 4.6 percent. The corresponding not-seasonally-adjusted national rate for January 2021 was 6.8 percent.
A year ago, the state’s seasonally adjusted rate was 3.6 percent, and the not-adjusted rate was 4.0 percent.
EMPLOYMENT
Missouri’s seasonally adjusted non-farm payroll employment was 2,805,100 in January 2021, up by 5,900 from the newly benchmarked December 2020 figure. However, the December 2020 total was revised downward by 10,600 from the preliminary estimate based on a previous benchmark, producing a revised increase of 9,200 jobs from November 2020 to December 2020 and a revised decrease of 128,900 jobs from December 2019 to December 2020.
Goods-producing industries gained 1,700 jobs over the month, with increases of 1,200 in manufacturing and 500 in mining, logging & construction. Meanwhile, service-providing industries added 4,200 jobs between December and January, with increases in educational & health services (+3,600 jobs), leisure & hospitality (+2,500 jobs) and professional & business services (+1,800 jobs) exceeding losses in financial activities (-3,600 jobs) and trade, transportation & utilities (-1,000 jobs). Government employment decreased by 300 over the month, with a gain in local government canceled out by losses in federal and state government.
Total payroll employment decreased by 124,800 jobs from January 2020 to January 2021. Over-the-year job losses were widespread among the major sectors of the labor market, with only trade, transportation & utilities spared. Goods-producing industries lost 10,600 jobs over the year, proportionally divided between manufacturing (-7,400 jobs) and mining, logging & construction (-3,200 jobs). Service-providing industries took a harder hit, losing 114,200 jobs over the year, with nearly half the loss in leisure & hospitality (-56,100 jobs). Professional & business lost 15,900 jobs over the year, educational & health services lost 11,900 jobs, “other services” lost 5,500 jobs, financial activities lost 4,000 jobs and information lost 3,300 jobs. Government employment also decreased over the year, losing 17,900 jobs.
