Employment numbers released by the Alabama Department of Labor (ADOL) Friday for the month of July indicate that both Selma and Dallas County’s rates of unemployment have held steady at 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

Both the city and county’s rates indicate a significant improvement over the same period last year, when Selma was struggling with an unemployment rate of 8.8 percent the county wasn’t far behind at 8 percent.

Despite that, Selma maintains the highest unemployment rate in the state, with the next highest city, Prichard, coming in at more than a full percentage point below Selma’s average, and Dallas County narrowly missed being named among the counties with the highest unemployment rates in the state – Perry County, with an unemployment rate of 6.7 percent, was listed among the three highest county rates in the state.

As for the rest of the state, ADOL Secretary Fitzgerald Washington is boasting yet another month of “record low unemployment,” as the state’s over-the-year job growth surpasses that of the nation.

“Our over-the-year job growth measured 2.0% this month, which outpaced the nation’s job growth by half of a percentage point. In fact, Alabama has matched or outpaced the national growth rate for six out of seven months in 2019,” continued Washington.  “Alabama’s economy added over 40,000 more jobs in the last 12 months, with at least four sectors reaching record level employment highs.”

The state’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate, improved over last month’s record-setting 3.5 percent, currently sits at 3.3 percent – with the not seasonally-adjusted average even lower at 3.1 percent – with more than 11,000 people joining the workforce over the month and more 57,000 since the same period last year.

“I’m proud to see our unemployment rate decrease and continue to reach record lows,” Washington said. “This month we also saw the number of people counted as unemployed fall to its lowest count ever.  More people are joining the workforce, with the expectation that they will find work, and, for the most part, they are.  But even as we celebrate these records, we know that there is still work to be done.  We’re proving month after month that Alabama has good, quality jobs.  We stand ready to assist anyone who’s ready to work.”

More than 75,000 people were counted as unemployed in July, a decrease of 12,761 over numbers from last July, and the civilian labor force has increased by more than 44,000 over the year, marking a record-high 2,246,878 people working in Alabama.

The four sectors which saw record-high levels of employment in July were transportation equipment manufacturing with more than 66,000 employees, motor vehicle manufacturing, with more than 14,000 employees, leisure and hospitality, with over 219,000 employees, and computer systems design, with more than 26,000 employees.

“More than 57,000 Alabamians have jobs today that didn’t a year ago,” said Governor Kay Ivey.  “That means that 57,000 more Alabamians have work and are contributing to their communities and our state. The effort we are making to bring jobs and employers to Alabama is working.  We are consistently improving our workforce and preparing Alabama for the future.”