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By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal
Lowndes County’s unemployment rate remains second highest in the state, according to October 2015 preliminary numbers released by the Alabama Department of Labor on Friday.
Lowndes County’s unemployment rate improved .9 percent from revised Oct. 2014 numbers and improved .7 percent from revised September 2015 numbers, but at 11.0 percent Lowndes had the second highest unemployment rate in the state behind Wilcox County at 13.3, according to the Alabama Department of Labor.
Lowndes was tied with Clarke County for second highest in the state when September 2015 preliminary numbers were released.
According to the Alabama Department of Labor, Choctaw County is the only county to register an increase in its unemployment rate over the year, rising from 7.8 percent to 8.4 percent. All other counties saw decreases over the month and either no change or decreases over the year.
Counties with the lowest unemployment rates are Shelby County at 4.0 percent, Lee County at 4.5 percent, and Elmore and Cullman Counties at 4.8 percent.
Clarke County hard the third highest unemployment in the state at 10.6 percent, Greene County was fourth at 10.0 percent and Monroe County was fifth at 9.7.
Governor Robert Bentley on Friday announced that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted October unemployment rate is 5.9 percent, down from September’s rate of 6.0 percent, and below October 2014’s rate of 6.2 percent.
“More jobs are being created, Alabama’s unemployment rate continues to drops and our economy is growing,” Bentley said. “The wage and salary employment is at its highest level for the year. It has not been this high in almost seven years. We are one step closer to full employment, and my effort to create jobs will continue until every Alabamian who wants a job has an opportunity to have one.”
“Not only are we seeing the highest wage and salary employment numbers of the year, we’ve also surpassed 2015 growth expectation by nearly 8,000 jobs,” Alabama Department of Labor Commissioner Fitzgerald Washington said. “Economists forecasted wage and salary growth of 33,800, and we’ve already seen growth of 41,700 through October alone*. We still have two months to go, and those are traditionally strong due to holiday hiring. The counties continue to show improvement, as well. All 67 counties experienced decreases in their unemployment rates over the month, and only one county registered an increase over the year.”