Mississippi's Job Market Remains Poor

The job market in Mississippi continues to grow more competitive. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on the latest indicator of that fact.

It’s not an easy time to be looking for a job in Mississippi. So says a new report released by The Conference Board, a non-profit research group based in New York. The report looked at the number of online job advertisements posted last month. June Shelp is a Vice President with The Conference Board,

"So when you look at the actual number of ads relative to the number of people who were looking for jobs. That’s when you get some idea of what the actual supply is of labor, i.e. people who are actively looking, and the demand for labor i.e. how many jobs are actually out there being advertised. That figure there tells you that for every ad that was out there, there were five people who were actually looking for jobs."

Vicky Barrett is vice president for advertising at the Sun Herald a Gulf Coast newspaper, she says things have gotten significantly worse in the last six weeks,

"We have seen a drop in employment advertising. And I would say more than 70% of people who choose to place employment advertising in the Sun Herald, choose to place a print ad and have an online component. So I don’t think the numbers being down is a marker that the internet is not working, or what have you. It’s really just a sign that very few people are hiring."

Mississippi’s unemployment rate has been hovering around 8% since December. For MPB News, I’m Phoebe Judge in Gulfport.