Jobless rate drops again

Gov. Kay Ivey announced Friday that Alabama’s May unemployment rate is 4.9 percent, down from April’s rate of 5.4 percent and lower than May 2016’s rate of 5.8 percent.

Franklin County’s unemployment rate also decreased, coming in at 4.2 percent unemployment for May as compared to 4.4 percent in April and 5.5 percent in May 2016.

“May’s figures represent the lowest unemployment rate in more than nine years and more people working now than in the last ten years,” Ivey said. “It is a team effort, and I sure am proud this rate decrease occurred during my first full month in office. We will continue to exhaust every effort and explore every opportunity until every Alabamian who wants a job, has a job.”

In Franklin County, the 4.2 percent unemployment rate represents 574 unemployed people, as compared to 601 unemployed people in April. According to the ADOL, the figures indicate 13,082 people employed, as compared to 13,134 employed in April, and a reduction in the labor force from 13,735 in April to 13, 656 in May.

In Northwest Alabama, unemployment percentages ranged from 3.8 percent, in Limestone, to as high as 4.9 percent, in Colbert.