County unemployment rises to 9.9 percent
Morgan County’s unemployment rose to 9.9 percent in June, up nearly one percentage point from May.
The unemployment rate represents nearly 5,673 who are without a job in Morgan County, which is nearly an increase of 600 from the previous month. The unemployment rate increased from June 2010 when it was 9.5 percent.
Although the rate did increase, Morgan County actually saw an increase in employment. Morgan County now has 51,448 workers employed, which is an increase from 50,969 in May 2011 and 50,788 in June 2010.
Morgan County’s unemployment rate is on par with the state’s unemployment rate, which is 9.9 percent. The state unemployment rate increased from 9.6 in May and 9.3 percent in June 2010. The number of unemployed workers grew by nearly 7,400 from May to June.
“While we are disappointed to report any increase in our seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, we keep in mind the contributing factors that led us here,” said Tom Surtees, director of the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations. “We still have hundreds of Alabamians unemployed as a direct result of the tornadoes of last April and the national unemployment rate also continues to rise. On the positive side, we have observed an uptick in the number of discouraged workers re-entering the job market in their employment search. There are over 33,000 more Alabamians working in June than in January, but during this same period over 50,000 came into the workforce. ”
The Decatur metropolitan area also saw its unemployment numbers rise to 10.2 percent, which is an increase from 9.4 percent in May 2010 and from 9.8 percent in June 2010.
The counties with the lowest unemployment rates were: Shelby County at 7.7 percent, Coffee County at 8.4 percent, Limestone County at 8.7 percent, Pike at 8.9 percent and Madison at 9 percent. The counties with the highest unemployment rates were Wilcox County at 23.4 percent, Perry County at 19.9 percent and Dallas County at 19.1 percent.
The median unemployment rate for an Alabama county is 11.2 percent.
