Birmingham's Unemployment Rate Down Considerably From Last Year

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Birmingham has made significant improvements in its jobless rate since October 2016. The Alabama Department of Labor reported that the city's unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent for October, a huge change from the 7.5 percent jobless rate on October of last year.

The Birmingham metro area as a whole has also improved in regard to unemployment, as the October jobless rate for the entire metro area was 3.2 percent in October this year, an improvement from the 5.9 percent unemployment rate in October of 2016. The metro's jobless rate is also better than the national average of 4.1 percent.

In Birmingham, the largest increase in employment from October 2016 to October 2017 came in health care and social assistance, while the largest decrease in employment was in administrative support and waste management. Jefferson County posted an unemployment rate of 3.4 percent, and Shelby County continued to have the lowest rate in Alabama at 2.6 percent.

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