Missouri August Jobs Report Shows Increase In Unemployment

     The pace of Missouri labor market’s recovery was essentially flat in August 2020. Employment, seasonally adjusted, decreased by 1,200 jobs over the month, and over-the year job losses increased slightly from upwardly revised July levels.
     The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased by one-tenth of a percentage point from July 2020 to August 2020. 
     Missouri’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has now been either below or equal to the national rate for 66 consecutive months. The national unemployment rate was 8.4 percent in August 2020. 
     The estimated number of unemployed Missourians was 215,249 in August 2020, up by 3,825 from July’s revised 211,424. 
     Missouri’s smoothed seasonally adjusted unemployment rate went up by a tenth of a percentage point in August 2020, increasing to 7.0 percent from the July 2020 rate of 6.9 percent. 
     Due to on-going impacts of COVID-19 shutdowns, the August 2020 rate was still more than double the August 2019 rate. The rate had reached a record low of 3.0 percent starting in July 2018, before edging up a tenth of a point in November 2018 and again in December 2018. The rate had remained at 3.2 percent through April 2019 before decreasing by a tenth of a point in May 2019. It then began a slow increase, reaching 3.4 percent in October 2019, where it remained for the remainder of 2019. The rate was steady at 3.5 percent   
     |n January and February 2020 before the COVID-19 spike began in March 2020. The rate peaked at 10.2 percent in April 2020 before decreasing slightly in May 2020, then moving strongly lower in June and July of 2020 as COVID-19 restrictions were eased. 
     The state’s not-seasonally-adjusted rate was 7.1 percent in August 2020, down by a tenth of a percentage point from the July 2020 not-seasonally-adjusted rate of 7.2 percent. The corresponding not-seasonally-adjusted national rate for August 2020 was 8.5 percent.  
     A year ago, the state’s seasonally adjusted rate was 3.2 percent, and the not-adjusted rate was 3.5 percent.