Putting Mississippians to work

“We used to have Mississippians looking for jobs, now we have jobs looking for Mississippians.”
That was the phrase used by Governor Phil Bryant yesterday during his annual State of the State address when he highlighted a record low in unemployment levels for Mississippi.
Bryant noted the addition of 60,000 jobs, pointing out that twice last year our state saw the jobless rate fall below 4.9 percent. It reached a low of 4.8 percent in November.
A major part of Bryant’s push to create jobs is the Mississippi Department of Employment Security providing resources like the Win Job Centers located across the state. Win Job Center Gulfport Branch Manager Al Brooken said, “Basically our mission statement is helping Mississippians get jobs, whatever that takes. We have a monthly thing we do called business outreach. Basically what we do is contact local employers, tell them about our services, and offer them our services to recruit employees. If a job seeker comes into the facility and they’re not job ready, we have the means to get them job ready.”
Along with 42 other locations across the state, there are Win Job Centers in each of the three coastal counties and their services are free to the public.