Governor Tate Reeves issued the following statement.
Governor Tate Reeves today announced that Mississippi set multiple new records in May for employment numbers in the state. First, total non-farm employment reached a record high with 1,191,300 jobs. Additionally, at only 34,605 Mississippians, the state reached a record low for the number of unemployed individuals. Furthermore, the state maintained its record low unemployment rate of 2.8%.
“Our economy is firing on all cylinders, which is why we continue to make history,” said Governor Tate Reeves. “There are more jobs in Mississippi than ever before, which is truly a victory worth celebrating. We’ll continue fighting for good-paying, high-quality jobs that attract more residents to our great state.”
The news follows a series of recent wins in Mississippi including the announcement that multiple Mississippi metropolitan areas had nation-leading lows in their unemployment rate. Furthermore, the state recently secured the largest economic development project in state history – a $10 billion investment from Amazon Web Services that will bring 1,000 new high-paying tech jobs to the Jackson metro area. Additionally, this year, the largest payroll commitment in state history was announced – a $1.9 billion investment from a joint venture between Accelera by Cummins, Daimler Truck, and PACCAR that will create 2,000 jobs with an average annual salary of approximately $66,000.
Kingfish note: The labor participation rate is 53.8%.
Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann announced the creation of a labour participation study group today:
Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann named a new Labor Force Participation Study Group chaired by Senator Daniel Sparks today. He also reinstituted the Study Group on Women, Children, and Families, originally created in 2022 and chaired by Senator Nicole Boyd.
“It the Legislature’s job to examine how our state laws and appropriations help or hinder Mississippi’s opportunities for positive growth and prosperity,” Hosemann said. “Both of these topics have tremendous potential to move the needle in terms of economic development, tourism, health outcomes, educational attainment, and other major factors which determine our future trajectory as a state and in our communities.”
The Labor Force Participation Study Group is tasked with making legislative recommendations on how to increase the number of people in Mississippi’s workforce and skill-up those who may be unemployed or underemployed. As of April 2024, Mississippi labor force participation rate was 53.7 percent—nine percentage points below the national average of 62.7 percent.
Other members of the study group include Senators Jason Barrett, Lydia Chassaniol, Dennis DeBar, Scott DeLano, Joey Fillingane, Tyler McCaughn, Sollie Norwood, David Parker, Derrick Simmons, Sarita Simmons, Mike Thompson, and Bart Williams. The public is invited to provide input at LaborStudyGroup@senate.ms.gov.
Elected in 2019, Sparks is an attorney from Belmont, Mississippi. He is chairman of the Senate Economic and Workforce Development Committee and vice chairman of the Judiciary B Committee.
The Women, Children, and Families Study Group heard testimony in 2022 from state agencies and others related to easing adoption and foster care, supporting children who are under the care of the state, maximizing child support, addressing the lack of childcare, and early intervention. The reinstituted group will hear updates about some of the legislation spurred because of their previous work and focus on new issues facing families and young children (birth to 3 years old) in Mississippi.
Members of the Women, Children, and Families Study Group include Senators Kevin Blackwell, Hob Bryan, Jeremy England, Dean Kirby, Rod Hickman, Angela Hill, Chad McMahan, Robin Robinson, Angela Turner-Ford, and Brice Wiggins. The public is invited to provide input atWCFStudyGroup@senate.ms.gov.
Elected in 2019, Boyd is an attorney from Oxford, Mississippi. She is chairwoman of the Senate Universities and Colleges Committee and vice chairwoman of the Medicaid Committee.
Both study groups will hold public hearings in late summer or early fall and hear testimony from state agencies, experts, and others. To learn more about Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, visit www.ltgovhosemann.ms.gov
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20 comments:
Bidenomics, amirite?!
Oh wait, we can only use that for stuff that’s bad. My bad.
Mississippi’s labor participation rate ranks in the bottom three states. So it’s a tad bit misleading for the governor to claim “record low unemployment rate of 2.8%” - That’s the unemployment rate of people actually looking for jobs. When almost half the state isn’t looking for a job, then no, this is not really a “victory worth celebrating.”
When most of your state’s populace/workforce is under educated and/or uneducated, companies that need quality workers will continue to overlook Mississippi and choose other states.
It all starts with education. Fully fund the public schools and pay teachers more so the talented teachers stay here.
Congrats on the extra 3,000 jobs you’re touting that will be mostly filled by the companies bringing in out of state talent to fill them though, I guess.
Yeah but its all $14/hr forklift driving and fast food jobs.
If Tot Jobs is steadily climbing then I'm not worried about the labor participation rate as I'll bet, if measured though I know it is not, that easily 25-30% of the people not even looking to work ARE TOO F'ING OBESE to actually work.
Tater went to Millsaps, ya’ll keep forgetting that.
Why work when you can sit on your obese ass and eat twinkies purchased with your EBT card?
1:19--Don't forget the Cheetos!
12:58: The Millsaps bit is getting old. Tell me you didn't go to Millsaps without telling me.
labor participation is skewed in the wrong direction 53.8 percent compared to a national number of 62.5. That and recent college grads are leaving the state so they aren't counted. Not impressed.
So misleading. The unemployment rate is now mostly meaningless since it only represents those actually looking to find a job. Why post things that are misleading. I conservative as it gets but the truth is our economy has lagged way behind surrounding states under this great governor. Lets not forget the 30 million dollars of taxpayer money we are sending to China... but wait, we are not supposed to acknowledge that are we? There is good reason that this Governor got fewer votes than most state wide elected politicians. He would have probably lost without the help of former President Trump.
@ "Fully fund the public schools and pay teachers more so the talented teachers stay here."
No. Stop taxing me and throwing my money at every liberal problem you can create.
@2:44
You are not taxed very much in Mississippi. And you don’t make much money, so your contribution is small. Stop whining.
Tater went to Millsaps? That explains a lot.
Well it makes sense. You have to work 2 jobs to afford what you could do with 1 job 4 years ago.
Our low labor participation rate is because of the large number of unmotivated people in our state. Get off your butts and learn a skill that is valuable to employers.
"It all starts with education. Fully fund the public schools and pay teachers more so the talented teachers stay here"
You should personally lead a crusade to remove all unnecessary administrative personnel. Then it wouldn't require as much money to fully fund education.
Shad keeps talking about unnecessary administrative positions in K-12.
Yet, he refuses to identify specific examples.
Those who don't have a desire to be in the workforce will not be coerced to enter it. You can form a committee and discuss how to 'skill up' all day long, to no avail.
Those who have no desire to 'skill up' or BE 'skilled up', are content being idle and on the dole. Why meet to discuss it?
Delbert might as well form a committee to discuss bums panhandling at the corner of 55 and Lakeland.
Meanwhile: Delbert and Tate encourage retirees to come live in The Sip where we don't tax retirement income. And every retiree who accepts that invitation adds to the negative labor force participation rate. The rate is a meaningless number except to data-geeks who track meaningless numbers.
@12:09pm
"It all starts with education. Fully fund the public schools and pay teachers more so the talented teachers stay here."
Clearly someone who doesn't know a thing about MS's educational "systems" which are bloated beyond bloat with meaningless admin positions, superintendents, vice-principals, vice-presidents, and on and on. The money is there, but the political will of the people to force their representatives to manage it properly will never be, because EVERYONE has an Aunt, Wife, Sister, or adult child working in those systems that has to make their PERS before it's too late.
Oh, and idiot Goofbert's "task force" for labor participation won't accomplish a thing except for the headline of the story. At every level (K-12 and higher ed) students in MS aren't expected to show up and fully attend classes consistently, so why should they in a job?
Extremely misleading!
We have 50%+ of the Sipp population who aren’t even participating
in our labor force!
Does Tater think most Mississippians are so STUPID not to see through
this nonsense ?!?
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