August’s unemployment rate in Scurry County was the lowest on record since 2015, according to figures released by the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).
The county had an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent in August, which is the second straight month it was under 5 percent.
The last time the rate was lower than 4.6 percent was in December 2015 when it was 4.1 percent.
In August, the county had 6,862 people in the workforce and 317 were classified as unemployed, TWC figures showed.
In December 2015, the county had 8,376 people in the workforce with 344 unemployed.
The August rate is down almost two full percentage points compared to a year ago.
In August 2016, the county had a rate of 6.3 percent with 7,734 people in the workforce and 484 classified as unemployed.
In July of this year, the county had an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent.
Kent County had the lowest rate in the region at 2.7 percent while Mitchell County had the highest at 5.6 percent.
Other county unemployment rates in the region were Andrews, 3.4 percent; Borden, 3.4 percent; Garza, 3.6 percent; Fisher, 3.7 percent; Coke, 3.9 percent; Nolan, 4.2 percent; Howard, 4.6 percent; and Dawson, 5.4 percent.
The Texas economy expanded for the 14th consecutive month with the addition of 5,500 seasonally adjusted non-farm jobs in August.
Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent, down from 4.3 percent in July.
Annual employment growth for Texas was 2.5 percent, which was more than double the annual growth rate set the previous year.
“Texas employers added 298,600 jobs over the year in the diverse and competitive Texas economy,” said TWC Chairman Andres Alcantar.
The Amarillo Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) recorded the month’s lowest unemployment rate among Texas MSAs with a non-seasonally adjusted rate of 3.1 percent, followed by the Midland MSA with a rate of 3.2 percent and the Austin-Round Rock MSA with a rate of 3.4 for August.