Scurry County’s unemployment rate held at 5.6 percent in May, according to figures released by the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).
The 5.6 percent rate is the same as April’s rate, but it is the fifth straight month it topped 5 percent.
In May, the county had 7,785 people in the workforce with 435 classified as unemployed. In April, 8,041 people were in the workforce and 448 were unemployed.
One year ago, in May 2015, the county had an unemployment rate of 3.6 percent with 8,752 people in the workforce and 312 classified as unemployed.
Kent County had the lowest rate in the region at 2 percent while Mitchell County had the highest rate at 6.8 percent.
Other county totals were Borden (3.1 percent), Garza (3.8 percent), Coke (4.1 percent), Fisher (4.2 percent), Nolan (4.5 percent), Andrews (4.7 percent); Dawson (5 percent) and Howard (5.4 percent).
Texas added an estimated 171,800 seasonally adjusted jobs over the past year with the addition of 200 non-farm jobs in May.
The state has added jobs in 13 of the last 14 months.
Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.4 percent in May, which is below the national average of 4.7 percent.
“Texas Workforce Solutions continues to offer market aligned services to advance local job creation efforts,” TWC Chairman Andres Alcantar said. “We must continue to build and support partnerships that connect employers to workers efficiently and equip job seekers with skills that help them succeed.”
The Amarillo Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) recorded the month’s lowest unemployment rate among Texas MSAs with a non-seasonally adjusted rate of 2.8 percent, followed by the Austin-Round Rock and Lubbock MSAs with rates of 2.9 and 3.1 percent, respectively, in May.
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