Alabama unemployment down but still above pre-pandemic rates

Friday, the Alabama Department of Labor announced that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally-adjusted February unemployment rate is 4%, down from January’s rate of 4.3% but above the February 2020 rate of 2.6%. The latest figure represents 91,065 unemployed persons, compared to 97,725 in January and 58,639 in February 2020.

“The unemployment rate continues to drop and is getting closer to the lows we enjoyed pre-pandemic,” state Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington said in a release. “While this is good news, the number of unemployed people is still higher than last year.”

In the Wiregrass, Houston County’s unemployment rate for February was 3.7% while Coffee County’s was 2.6% and Geneva County was at 2.8%. The rates in other Wiregrass counties in February: Barbour County, 6.2%; Covington County, 3.1%; Dale County, 3.4%; Henry County, 3.3%; and Pike County, 3.3%.

While rates for Barbour, Dale, Houston and Pike counties are above what they were in February 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic, the rates in the remaining counties are around where they were this time last year.

Wage and salary employment increased in February by 14,500, according to the labor department’s release. The biggest monthly gains were seen in leisure and hospitality (+4,600); professional and business services (+3,300); and government (+3,000).

Over the year, wage and salary employment decreased by 65,500 with the biggest losses in leisure and hospitality (-17,400), education and health services (-15,700), and government (-9,500). Annual gains were seen in trade, transportation and utilities.

The Alabama Department of Labor also released the official count for initial unemployment claims filed during the week of March 14-20.

There were 13,994 initial claims filed either online or by telephone during this period. Of those, there were 10,189 claims believed to be COVID-19 related. Initial unemployment claims are those first filed after a recent job loss. These numbers do not include all current unemployment claims.

After COVID-19 was first diagnosed in Alabama in March 2020, statewide health orders forced businesses to close or reduce staffing, forcing many workers to file for unemployment. Initial claims peaked the week of April 4 with 106,739 claims filed. Before health orders forced closings, there were less than 2,000 claims filed statewide.

For the Wiregrass, there were 680 initial claims filed the week ending March 20.