While the area has seen some improvement in jobless rates, the ranks of the unemployed remain swelled.

Unemployment in Chickasaw County improved slightly more than 1 percent from March to April, going from 13.9 percent to 12.8 percent. Calhoun held steady month to month, remaining at 11.4 percent.

Chickasaw's rate is the 13th highest in the state. Calhoun has the 27th highest jobless rate.

In Calhoun County, both the labor pool and the number of employed increased by 40, while the number of unemployed held even at 680. The labor force increased from 5,940 to 5,980, while the number of employed rose from 5,260 to 5,300.

Chickasaw's labor force shrank by 70 from March to April, from 7,340 to 7,270. The jobless declined from 1,020 to 930, while the employed rose from 6,320 to 6,340.

The April rates were the highest by far for the month during the past five years. The highest April for Calhoun in that time was in 2005, when the jobless rate was 7.4 percent. Chickasaw's next highest April was 2007, with an 8.6 percent rate.

Over the past 12 months, Calhoun has averaged 10.8 percent unemployment. Chickasaw averaged 13 percent.

Regionally

Fourteen of the 16 counties in Northeast Mississippi posted lower unemployment rates in April, dropping the overall jobless rate for the region to 10.4 percent.

For the first three months of the year, the rate was at least 11 percent.

According to estimates by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, the ranks of the unemployed in the region decreased from 24,650 in March to 22,760 in April.

The number of employed was unchanged - again, according to MDES figures - at 195,980.

Meanwhile, the region's labor force - the number of people employed or seeking employment - dropped from 220,630 in March to 218,740.

Northeast Mississippi's April jobless rate is higher than the state average of 8.6 percent, a drop of eight-tenths of a percentage point from a month earlier.

The national jobless rate was 8.6 percent in April. Mississippi's rate in April 2008 was 5.6 percent; in Northeast Mississippi it was 6.4 percent.

MDES said construction and hospitality industries saw the largest gains in unemployment.

Thirty-five of the state's 82 counties posted double-digit jobless rates, including 11 of the 16 counties in Northeast Mississippi.

Lee County, the region's economic hub, saw its unemployment rate drop a full percentage point, to 9.9 percent.

Daily Journal business editor Dennis Seid contributed to this report.