On Friday, Gov. Kay Ivey announced that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted September unemployment rate continued to hold at its record low level of 2.6%. September’s rate is well below September 2021’s rate of 3.2%.
There were only 59,558 unemployed persons in the state, which was up slightly from August’s 58,913; but well below last year’s 71,989.
“Despite the uncertainty facing the U.S. economy, Alabama has managed to add 50,000 new jobs since September of 2021 and is on pace to break its previous record for yearly job growth,” said Governor Ivey. “Our efforts continue to yield encouraging results, and I’m looking forward to working with our public and private partners to make Alabama an even better place to live, work and raise a family.”
The size of the Alabama workforce has recovered from COVID-19 and the economic shutdowns.
“While we are, of course, happy to maintain a record low unemployment rate, we’re even more pleased to announce that we are within around 10,000 jobs of beating our previously held jobs count record – set in 2019 – and we saw the largest year-over-year job growth so far in 2022. We’ve added over 50,000 jobs since this time last year, which is remarkable,” said Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington. “For months, Alabama has been holding steady on unemployment and increasing our jobs count, and we are hopeful this positive growth will continue.”
Over the year, wage and salary employment increased by 53,800. This represents the largest year-to-date growth of 2.6%. The state posted impressive gains in the education and health services sector (+15,200), the professional and business services sector (+10,900), and the manufacturing sector (+7,800), among others.
Over the year, wage and salary employment increased by 53,800, representing the largest year-to-date growth of 2.6%, with gains in the education and health services sector (+15,200), the professional and business services sector (+10,900) and the manufacturing sector (+7,800), among others.
Wage and salary employment increased by 10,100 over the month, with gains in the professional and business services sector (+5,400), the government sector (+5,300), and the education and health services sector (+4,200), among others.
The civilian labor force increased over the year to 2,294,506. This is an increase of 54,153. The number of people counted as employed increased over the year to 2,234,948. That represents an increase of 66,584. Both of these numbers are new record highs.
The state is also seeing much higher wages. The average weekly wages increased to $1,007.07 in September, this is the second highest on record. This is an increase of $22.53 over the year, a 2.3% growth. The Professional and Business Services Sector also reached a new record high for weekly wages, increasing to $1,342.04.
The Alabama counties with the lowest unemployment rates are: Shelby County at 1.8%, Marshall and Cullman Counties at 2.0%, and Morgan, Limestone, Chilton, and Blount Counties at 2.1%. The counties with the highest unemployment rates are Wilcox County at 9.0%, Lowndes County at 6.6%, and Dallas County at 6.2%.
The major cities with the lowest unemployment rates are Vestavia Hills at an incredibly low 1.5%, Homewood at 1.6%, and Trussville at 1.7%. The major Alabama cities with the highest unemployment rates are Selma at 7.3%, Prichard at 6.0%, and Anniston at 4.2%.
Alabama’s unemployment rate of 2.6% is below the national average of 3.3%. The Alabama labor participation rate continues to lag behind the rest of the country. 57.1% of adult Alabamians are in the labor force. This is up from last year’s 56.2%, but trails the national average of 62.2%
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