Missouri Unemployment Rate Stays Steady

Missouri’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stayed steady in March of 2024. The state realized a nonfarm payroll employment increase. Missouri unemployment rate was 3.3 percent. The employment increase was 8,100 jobs.

The March 2024 rate was half of a percentage point higher than the March 2023 rate.

Missouri’s labor force participation rate was 63.1 percent in March 2024, four-tenths of a percentage point higher than the national rate of 62.7 percent. Missouri’s employment-population ratio was 61 percent in March 2024, seven-tenths of a percentage point higher than the national rate of 60.3 percent. Missouri’s unemployment rate of 3.3 percent is half a percentage point lower than the national rate of 3.8 percent. Missouri’s unemployment rate has been at or below the national rate for more than eight years.

Employment in private service-providing industries increased in leisure and hospitality by 6,200 jobs; private education and health services by 2,100 jobs; and trade, transportation, and utilities by 1,800 jobs. Employment decreased in professional and business services by 3,200 jobs, financial activities by 700 jobs, and information by 200 jobs.