Alabama Unemployment At 6 Year Low

It’s been years since state’s unemployment rate has been so low. 

The Alabama Department of Labor says one of the reasons is all the job growth in the state during 2014.

 

“Over the year, we’ve seen an annual percentage of job growth of 1.13 percent, which is the highest we’ve seen since 2007. So we’re very pleased about the job growth. We’re over 30,000 jobs to the positive this year than we were in 2013,” said Tara Hutchison with the Alabama Department of Labor.

 

Some of the job fields aggressively hiring have been truck drivers, registered nurses, and retail. 

 

Nancy Dennis with the Alabama Retail Association says businesses in the state are on track to rack up $9 billion in sales this holiday season. 

 

“Sales are up because people have more confidence in the economy right now and also gas prices are very low. So that gives them more disposable income in their pockets, more money to spent in restaurants or just to do some impulse buying when there in retailers,” said Dennis.

 

The news isn’t all good. Even though we’re on a downward trend, the state is still 50 thousand jobs short of where we were before the recession.

 

And Hutchinson says don’t expect these numbers to continue into January. 

 

“Traditionally january you can kind of see some things go in the opposite way just as you see some of those seasonal hires being let go and a lot of the manufacturing plants in Alabama also will temporarily shut down in January and that’s just something that happens every year,” said Hutchison.