AP and staff reports

The reason for Adams County’s slight increase in unemployment for the month of October mimicked that of Mississippi as a whole, a state job official said Wednesday.

&uot;In both cases, the rise was due to the fact that manufacturing jobs were lost,&uot;&160;said Jan Garrick, director of communications for the Mississippi Employment Security Commission, which released October job figures this week.

&uot;Fifty manufacturing jobs were lost in Adams County alone, and 800 statewide&uot; due to layoffs and plant closures, she added.

Adams County had a 7.7 percent unemployment rate for October. The rate for September was 7.4 percent.

A decrease in agricultural jobs due to the harvest’s end also led to an increase in the jobless rate on the statewide level.

In October, Mississippi’s jobless rate was up to 5 percent from a rate of 4.8 percent in September, according to the Employment Security Commission.

In October 1998, the rate was 4.9 percent. Nationally, the rate was 3.8 percent in October. More than 1.2 million Mississippians had a job in October, but 63,700 were without work.

Surrounding counties’ unemployment rates for October were:

n 11.9 percent for Claiborne County, up from 9.6 percent.

n 8.5 percent for Franklin County, up from 7.9 percent.

n 18.1 percent in Jefferson County, up from 16.4 percent.

n 12.9 percent in Wilkinson County, up from 11.7 percent.

For October, Lafayette County had the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 1.4 percent, followed by Oktibbeha at 1.9 percent and Rankin with 2.3 percent.

Jefferson Davis County posted the highest unemployment rate in the state with 20.5 percent.

Holmes had a jobless rate of 18.9 and Jefferson’s rate stood at 18.1.