Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees announced earlier this week that Alabama’s August unemployment rate fell to 9.9 percent, down from July’s rate of 10.0 percent.

Locally, the drop was more pronounced: from 9.9 percent in July to 9.1 percent in August.
August’s rate represents 213,412 unemployed persons, down from 215,631 in July.

In Crenshaw County, the number dropped from 674 unemployed persons to 620 unemployed persons.

Statewide, there were over 28,000 more jobs than there were at the beginning of this year.

In August, statewide employment was 1,949,824, compared to January’s employment, which was 1,921,819.

“We continue to see minor fluctuations in our unemployment rate, but I think the better indicator of our job market is the fact that we are consistently seeing our employment numbers rise, which is definitely a good sign,” said Surtees. “This means that more people are going to work in Alabama.”

“In addition, we saw more hits on our online jobs database, our Career Centers have more active job orders, and we have the most new jobseeker resumes than at any point during the year – all of these stats point to the fact that people are gaining confidence in the job market,” Surtees continued.

JobLink, Alabama’s free online jobs database, registered over 11,000 hits in August, with more than 14,000 new jobseeker resumes posted.

The Alabama Career Center System recorded more than 12,000 active job orders – the most recorded this year with the exception of May, which reflected a spike in temporary clean up jobs as a result of April’s tornadoes.

Unemployed and underemployed Alabamians can visit JobLink at www.joblink.alabama.gov or visit their local Career Center to receive free employment assistance (a listing of Career Centers is available at www.dir.alabama.gov).

Counties with the lowest unemployment rate were: Shelby at 6.8 percent, Coffee at 7.4 percent, and Madison at 8.1 percent.

Counties with the highest unemployment rates were: Wilcox at 22.3 percent, Perry at 18.9 percent, and Dallas at 18.7 percent.