By Adam Dodson
The Selma Times-Journal

Alabama and Dallas County continue to see upward trends in their wage and salary employment numbers as the monthly statistics for April indicate the highest total in ten years.

All 67 counties in the state saw their unemployments rates diminish, with Dallas County dropping 0.4 percent from March’s rate of 5.9 to 5.5. This total is also down 1.1 percent from the previous year’s April totals.

The trend continues what has been a year of growth for the state, seeing drops in the unemployment rate every month except March, where it rose one-tenth of a percent. The wage and salary employment for the month totaled 2,039,200, which is the highest in Alabama since December 2007.

Over the course of 2018, wage and salary employment has increased 24,600. For April, it increased by almost 14,000, with gains seen in professional and business services (6,000), the hospitality sector (4,900) and the construction sector (2,300).

Gov. Kay Ivey was elated about the improvement, and attributes it to a strong business environment.

“The good news just keeps coming in Alabama,” Ivey said in a press release. “Alabama businesses are supporting more jobs than they have in more than a decade.”

The better employment numbers have touched all counties in the state. This includes Wilcox County, which traditionally has the highest unemployment out of all 67. However, the county has managed a drop in unemployment of 2.2 percent over the year.

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates are Shelby (2.6), Cullman (2.8), and Madison, Elmore and Marshall Counties (3.0).