Report: Greene has worst wages among major counties in Missouri

Posted online March 8, 2018 | 11:05 am

Missouri’s unemployment results mixed in latest report

Missouri’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January came to 3.7 percent — on par with the revised December figure. The state previously reported a December unemployment rate of 3.5 percent.

In January, the number of unemployed people in Missouri rose by less than 1 percent to 112,357 compared with December, according to a news release issued yesterday by the state Department of Economic Development.

However, Missouri employers added a net 4,900 nonfarm jobs during the month, led by increases in:

•educational and health services, at 3,300 jobs;

•trade, transportation and utilities, 2,600;

•professional and business services, 1,000;

•government, 900;

•information, 900; and

•manufacturing, 500.

Offsetting industries included mining, logging and construction, which fell by 2,400 jobs, and leisure and hospitality, which dropped by 1,900, according to the release.

Greene County’s wages are the worst among the major counties in Missouri, and they aren’t trending up, according to a report released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Missouri’s average weekly wage in third-quarter 2017 was $781, a 2.6 percent drop from the same period a year earlier. Greene County ranked 296th in terms of percent change among the 346 largest U.S. counties measured by the BLS, according to a news release.

Greene County wasn’t alone in Missouri. All six others measured by the BLS also posted declines in third-quarter wages.

Missouri counties, by third-quarter wages and percent change:
    •    St. Louis City, $1,066, down 3.6 percent;
    •    St. Louis, $1,048, down 0.7 percent;
    •    Jackson, $1,019, down 0.6 percent;
    •    Clay, $856, down 4.8 percent;
    •    Boone, $819, down 1.9 percent;
    •    St. Charles, $807, down 1.7 percent; and
    •    Greene, $781, down 2.6 percent.

Similarly, the overall U.S. average wage dipped 0.6 percent to $1,021, according to the release.