Alabama’s August Unemployment Rate is 6.2%

MONTGOMERY – Governor Robert Bentley on Friday announced that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted August unemployment rate is 6.2%, unchanged from July’s rate of 6.2%, and below August 2014’s rate of 6.5%.

“There was very little change this month in our unemployment numbers,” Governor Bentley said.  “We focus on the fact that we continue to show year-over-year growth in our wage and salary employment, meaning that the trend of slow and steady progress is continuing. This week, we celebrated the inauguration of operations for Airbus in Mobile and announced an expansion at Mercedes Benz with 300 new jobs. We are working every day to create jobs, and our efforts will continue.”

Over the year, wage and salary employment increased 23,300, with gains in the education and health services sector (+7,700), the leisure and hospitality sector (+4,700), and the construction sector (+4,000), among others.

Wage and salary employment increased in August by 900.  Monthly gains were seen in the government sector (+1,600), the education and health services sector (+1,000), and the leisure and hospitality sector (+700), among others.

JobLink, the state’s online free jobs database (www.joblink.alabama.gov), registered 23,299 active job orders in August.

“All of the metro areas saw their unemployment rates drop or remain constant over the month, and 64 of 67 counties saw their rate either drop or remain constant in August,” Alabama Department of Labor Fitzgerald Washington said. “Only one Alabama county experienced an increase in its unemployment rate over the year, which is telling us that all across the state, things are improving.”

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates are: Shelby County at 4.7%, Lee, Elmore, and St. Clair Counties at 5.5%, and Cullman and Baldwin Counties at 5.6%.

Unemployment Rate by County, August 2015

August 2015 Map

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“Seasonal adjustment” refers to BLS’s practice of anticipating certain trends in the labor force, such as hiring during the holidays or the surge in the labor force when students graduate in the spring, and removing their effects to the civilian labor force.  

The Current Population (CPS), or the household survey, is conducted by the Census Bureau and identifies members of the work force and measures how many people are working or looking for work. 

The establishment survey, which is conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a division of the U.S. Department of Labor, surveys employers to measure how many jobs are in the economy.  This is also referred to as wage and salary employment.