County unemployment holds steady

Gov. Kay Ivey announced last week that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted February unemployment rate held steady to match January’s rate at 3.7 percent – an outcome that is mirrored in Franklin County.

In Franklin, the reported unemployment rate held matched January 2018’s rate, 4 percent unemployed, following the increase from 3.3 percent from December 2017.

This time last year, in February 2017, the county’s unemployment percentage came in at 5.7 percent, slightly higher that the state’s 5.3 percent.

“The fact that we are able to maintain our record low unemployment rate for yet another month shows that we are, in fact, keeping Alabamians working,” said Ivey. “Once again, we can announce that we have the fewest number of unemployed people in history. More people are working, and our economy is adding jobs. This is a combination I’m proud of, and one we hope to maintain for many more months to come.”

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates are: Shelby County at 3.1 percent, Cullman County at 3.6 percent and Marshall, Madison and Blount counties at 3.7 percent, according to the Alabama Department of Labor. Wilcox County has the highest unemployment at 10.5 percent.

In Franklin County, the percentage represents 559 unemployed people, according to the ADOL.

Franklin County’s reported percentage of unemployed people is lower than all surrounding counties.