Last week, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) reported the monthly unemployment rates for the end of 2014.
According the Mississippi Labor Market Data report, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rates a year ago were six-tenths of a percent lower than the 7.8 percent reported for December 2013. 
The report states that in December 2014, there was a positive 900-job increase than in November 2014, and 200 more than in December 2013, according to seasonally adjusted results from a survey of Mississippi employers.
All of the data reported by MDES is seasonally adjusted and unadjusted. When seasonally adjusted, data has removed the effects of events that cause an irregular pattern in the labor force that have to do with weather, holidays, and other recurring seasonal events. 
MDES reports  the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December 2014 was 7.2 percent. This means over the month of December, there was a one-tenth of a percentage decrease from November. 
Mississippi’s unadjusted unemployment rate for December 2014 was 7.1 percent, with an increased seven-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month’s rate of 6.4 percent. Compared to December 2013, the unemployment rate has decreased.
The industry sectors that registered the largest unemployment data monthly were Leisure & Hospitality,and Government. 
In December 2014, Mississippi had twenty-six counties to post unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 7.1 percent. The county with the lowest unemployment rate was DeSoto, while Tunica County had the highest unemployment rate, followed by Clay County.
Oktibbeha County fell to number twenty-four on the scale for unemployment, DeSoto County being number one.
Its average was 7.0, which is roughly off by .1 to .2 percent of the state’s average. 
While MDES’s Labor Force Data Estimates chart reads the 2013 annual average of civilian labor force in Mississippi was 1,286,400, the newly released preliminary results for civilian labor force in December 2014 was 1,247,100. This significant decrease is incomparable to the adjusted rate of unemployment for December 2014.
Overall, MDES reported (preliminary) the total number of unemployed individuals in Mississippi is 88,100, and the total number employed (preliminary) is 1,159,000. 
For calculation of unemployment rates, MDES reports the statistics on the employment status of the population and related data are compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics using data from the current population survey (CPS). This survey features the monthly survey of households held by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Reportedly, 60,000 households are eligible for interview nationally. The households within the survey are rotated to ensure that 75 percent of households are consistent from month to month. Other statistics are generated by MDES’s Labor Market Information Department.