Unemployment Up Again and Likely to Stay That Way

Mississippi’s unemployment rate continued to rise in March, and an expert says more bad news is likely. MPB’s Cari Gervin has more.

That’s the sound of Kirk Lovejoy grinding meat at Oxford’s newest restaurant, Snackbar.

"Diced lamb that I’m grinding for the lamb sliders. It has the Big Bad Breakfast bacon in it, truffle shavings salt and black pepper, truffle oil.”

Lovejoy is one of about 25 employees at the restaurant. Although the recession has hit the restaurant industry hard, manager Drew Stevens says he and owner John Currence are happy they can provide at least a few new jobs in an economy where jobs are few and far between.

Lafayette County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state – 6.5 percent – but jobs are still hard to come by. Stevens said more than 200 people applied for a job and most of the applicants weren’t students.

“We knew that a lot of people were gonna need some work. But I was a little bit surprised at the number of applicants that – that where our application would say, ‘check what position you’re applying for,’ and then they would just check them all, you know, just to try and get some work.”

And according to state economist Phil Pepper, the unemployment numbers aren’t going to improve any time soon. Pepper said he expects Mississippi’s 9.4 percent rate of unemployment to continue to rise throughout the rest of 2009.

“People who have lost their jobs are just going to have to get out there and scrap to try to find whatever they can right now. Things are tough – they’re going to stay tough, for another six months anyhow, probably.”

The state’s unemployment has risen by a third over the past year. For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin in Oxford.