Almost 23,000 more Alabamians are working today than in September 2016. Today, Gov. Kay Ivey announced Alabama's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for September 2017 was 3.8 percent, down from 4.2 percent in August.
"We’ve been working extremely hard over the past six months to bring Alabama’s unemployment rate down, and today’s news shows that our efforts are paying off,” Ivey said. "This is truly an historic day, as we announce that Alabama’s unemployment rate is the lowest it has ever been. When it comes to job creation, we are doing the right thing and momentum is on our side in Alabama. But, we won't let up and we will continue recruiting new businesses and encouraging existing firms to expand. We can’t and won’t slow down just because we’ve reached this milestone.”
This is the lowest the unemployment in Alabama has ever been, tied with April 2007, when it was also 3.8 percent.
Lee County is among the counties with the lowest rates at 2.9 percent. Auburn's and Opelika's unemployment rates for September were 2.9 percent and 3.0, respectively. Auburn saw a sharp drop from 4 percent unemployment in August. A year ago, the city had an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent, still below the state average at the time of 6 percent.
In August, Ivey visited the ribbon cutting of the expansion of Baxter International's facilities in Opelika. Company officials said the $270 million expansion helped bring more than 130 new jobs to the area.
“Nearly 23,000 more people are working now than last year and the number of unemployed is down by almost 50,000," said Alabama Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington in a statement. "Those numbers represent real workers, with real families, and indicate real progress in our economy. All 67 counties experienced drops in their unemployment rates, both over the year and over the month, and for the first time in a decade, no county has a rate in the double digits."
The national unemployment rate in September was 4.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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