Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington on Friday announced that the Yellowhammer State’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted August unemployment rate is 5.6%, down significantly from July’s rate of 7.9%.
Last month’s rate, while still double August 2019’s rate of 2.8%, represents a major recovery from the worst point Alabama faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state’s unemployment rate was 13.4% in April.
The latest WalletHub study of the “States Whose Unemployment Rates Are Bouncing Back Most” released on Friday showed Alabama experiencing America’s ninth best recovery.
August’s rate represents 127,186 unemployed persons, compared to 176,556 in July.
“The drop in the unemployment rate is certainly good news for Alabama,” stated Governor Kay Ivey. “We have worked extremely hard to open Alabama’s businesses safely, and to put our hard-working families back to work. We know that challenges remain, and we will endeavor to meet them so that we can get back to our previous, pre-pandemic record-setting employment numbers.”
More good news occurred in that several industries saw their average weekly earnings reach record high levels, including manufacturing and construction.
“August showed a larger drop in the unemployment rate than we’ve seen for a few months,” advised Washington. “We are continuing to see our initial claims drop, staying under 10,000 for the past several weeks. We regained another 22,200 jobs this month but are still down more than 86,000 from this time last year.”
“One highlight is that our civilian labor force, or the number of people who are working or actively looking for work, is at its highest level ever! This means that people are confident that jobs are there for them to find,” he concluded.
Fortunately, all Alabama counties and metropolitan areas saw a decrease in unemployment rates from July to August.
Counties with the lowest unemployment rates in August were: Clay County at 3.4%; Randolph, Franklin, Marshall, Cullman, Cleburne and Cherokee Counties at 3.6%; and Blount County at 3.7%.
Counties with the highest unemployment rates were: Wilcox County at 14.8%, Lowndes County at 13.8% and Greene County at 10.9%.
Major cities with the lowest unemployment rates were: Vestavia Hills at 3.0%, Homewood at 3.2% and Madison at 3.3%.
Major cities with the highest unemployment rates were: Prichard at 15.4%, Selma at 12.9% and Bessemer at 10.7%.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
