The Missouri labor market continued to recover in July 2020, following major job losses due to COVID-19 shutdowns earlier in the year. Employment, seasonally adjusted, increased by 52-thousand-200 jobs over the month. Over-the year job losses, though still substantial, have diminished as the economy has gradually reopened. Missouri’s smoothed seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 6.9 percent in July 2020 from a revised June 2020 rate of 7.8 percent, a decrease of nine-tenths of a percentage point. Missouri’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has now been either below or equal to the national rate for 65 consecutive months. The national unemployment rate was 10.2 percent in July 2020. The estimated number of unemployed Missourians was 211-Thousand-177 in July 2020, down by 25,026 from June. Due to lingering layoffs from COVID-19 shutdowns, the July 2020 seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was still more than double the July 2019 rate, which was 3.2 percent.