January unemployment rises 3 percent
Franklin County’s unemployment numbers rose three percent in January to 12.2 percent.
That almost matches the January 2010 total of 12.3 percent.
Local officials said they are unsure what could have led to the increase in jobless claims because they are unaware of any large layoffs in the county during that period.
The jobless claims rose from 1,211 in December to 1616 in January.
Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees announced Thursday that Alabama’s January 2011 unemployment rate is 9.3 percent, which is an increase from December 2010’s rate of 9.1 percent. January 2011’s rate remains significantly below January 2010’s rate of 10.3 percent.
“Although we did experience a slight increase in our January unemployment rate, we continue to see positive signs that our economy is, in fact, recovering,” Surtees said.
“We are paying out fewer dollars in unemployment compensation benefits for a lesser number of weeks, which shows us that people are going back to work more quickly. Also, our online jobs database currently has more active job orders than at any point since 2006, with the exception of the months following last year’s oil spill.”
DIR paid $37,692,210 in unemployment compensation benefits for 188,011 weeks in January, compared to $49,258,825 for 240,816 weeks in January 2010, and $52,769,454 for 261,934 weeks in January 2009.
Alabama JobLink recorded 10,590 active job orders in January, which is more than any month in the past four years, with the exception of the months immediately following the Gulf Oil Spill, when a large number of temporary beach clean-up jobs were available.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to once again urge Alabamians to visit their local Career Center or log onto www.joblink.alabama.gov to take advantage of the many free job services available to them. There are currently more than 8,500 jobs available, you never know if one may be perfect for you,” Surtees said.
The counties with the lowest unemployment rate in January were Shelby County at
7.1 percent, Coffee County at 7.6 percent, Pike County at 8.1 percent and Madison County at 8.1 percent.
The counties with the highest unemployment rates were Wilcox County at 21.7 percent, Lowndes County at 18.3 percent and Greene County at 17.7 percent.
