BREAKING RECORDS

More than 2.1 million people were working in Alabama in August, making it the fourth consecutive month to break the previous employment record, the Department of Labor announced Friday.

“For four months in a row now, we’ve been breaking employment records,” DOL Secretary Fitzgerald Washington said. “Thirty-two thousand more Alabamians are working now than last year. We’ve also seen our labor force grow by 37,000, meaning more people have confidence in the economy and their ability to find a job — and the majority of those have found work, which is great news.”

Etowah County’s employment rate dropped slightly, from 4.5 percent in July to 4.4 percent in August. Last year, the total for August was 4.5 percent.

Gadsden’s unemployment rate fell from 5.4 percent in July to 5.3 in August. It was 5.2 percent a year ago.

Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted August unemployment rate is 4.1 percent, unchanged from July’s rate, and slightly above August 2017’s rate of 4.0 percent. August’s rate represents 91,211 unemployed people, compared to 90,928 in July and 86,383 in August 2017.

2,112,274 Alabamians were counted as employed in August 2018, up from 2,105,577 in July, and up 32,101 from August 2017’s count of 2,080,173.

The civilian labor force, which is composed of people who are working or looking for work, increased over the year by 36,929, up to 2,203,485, compared to August 2017’s count of 2,166,556.

“Our jobs count continues to remain well above 2 million. The sectors that are experiencing the most yearly growth are sectors with traditionally high wages, like professional and business services, manufacturing and construction,” Washington said. “Professional and business services employment, which includes high paying occupations like operations managers, software developers and more, is at a record high.”

Professional and business services employment currently measures 252,100, the highest level ever experienced.

Average hourly wages for selected occupations in this sector include: general and operations managers at $59.46 per hour, software developers, applications at $45.36 per hour and database administrators at $40.64 per hour. Wages for other occupations can be found online at www.labor.alabama.gov/lmi by using the “Alabama Wage Lookup” tool.

Over the year, wage and salary employment increased 23,300, with gains in the professional and business services sector (+9,500), the manufacturing sector (+8,200), and the construction sector (+2,300), among others.

Wage and salary employment increased in August by 9,600. Monthly gains were seen in the government sector (+5,900), the professional and business services sector (+5,700), and the construction sector (+1,600), among others.

In August, 64 of 67 counties saw their unemployment rates decrease or remain unchanged, 25 of 26 major cities, and all metros saw either a decrease or no change in their rates from July to August.

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates were Shelby at 3.1 percent, Cullman at 3.4 percent and Marshall at 3.5 percent. Counties with the highest unemployment rates were Wilcox at 10.0 percent, Clarke at 8.1 percent and Lowndes at 7.9 percent.

Major cities with the lowest unemployment rates were Vestavia Hills at 2.8 percent, Homewood, Hoover, and Alabaster at 3.0 percent and Madison at 3.2 percent. Major cities with the highest unemployment rates were Selma at 8.2 percent, Prichard at 7.3 percent and Bessemer at 5.5 percent.