The Alabama economy is continuing to boom and would grow even faster if only employers could fill all the positions they have. According to the most recent data collected and analyzed by the Alabama Department of Labor’s Labor Market Information (LMI) Division, there were 100,635 job ads posted in Alabama in January.
The five occupations with the most online job ads are Registered Nurses, Retail Salespersons, Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers, Fast Food & Counter Workers, Sales Reps, and Wholesale & Manufacturing, with 16,494 ads placed for just those occupations in January.
The HWOL data is compiled from all online job postings in the state, including those posted on the state’s free online jobs database, AlabamaWorks.alabama.gov, and other sources, such as traditional job boards, corporate boards, and social media sites.
In January 2023, there were 9,091 job ads with salaries of $70,000 and above. Five thousand seven hundred thirty-one job ads were for positions with salaries in the $50,000 to $69,000 range. There were 8,462 ads for positions with salaries in the $35 to 50,000 range. There were only 10,976 job ads with salaries of less than $35,000.
The top two employers posting the most online ads in January were Walmart, with 1,342 posted job ads, and Huntsville Hospital, with 1,314. Among the top 10 were UAB Medicine with 1,211, the University of Alabama at Birmingham with 762, Dollar General with 702, Grandview Medical Center with 663, Auburn University with 623, Baptist Health with 585, Regions with 554, and Walgreens with 482.
In 2022, wage and salary employment increased by 54,100 jobs. There were notable gains in the manufacturing sector of +10,400 jobs, the professional and business services sector of +8,700 jobs, and the private education and health services sector of +7,500 jobs, among others.
Wages are also rising to keep up with the growing demand.
“Additionally, we’re continuing to see positive increases in our wages, meaning more money in Alabamians’ pockets,” said Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington. “This month, we reached one of our highest average weekly wages in history.”
Total private wages increased by $30.12/weekly over the year to $1,008.61 in January. This marks the third-highest weekly wages in the history of the state. More Alabamians are employed now than at any point in state history.
January unemployment remained at a historically low rate of just 2.6%, as anyone searching for work can quickly find it.
On Monday, Gov. Kay Ivey announced that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted January unemployment rate was just 2.6%.
The state hopes the plethora of available jobs and higher wages will lure more Alabamians into the labor force. The state’s labor force participation rate is just 56.7% which trails the national average of 62.2%.
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