Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Covington County’s unemployment rate for April 2024 decreased from the prior month while increasing year over year, according to the Alabama Department of Labor.

The priliminary, non-seasonlly adjusted unemployment rate in Covington County for April was 2.9 percent, down from March’s rate of 3.5 percent. It is up from April 2023’s rate of 2 percent. The rate is based on a reported civilian county labor force of 14,839.

Rates for adjacent counties are: Butler County, 3.2 percent, down from 3.5 in March; Coffee County, 2.9 percent, down from 3.3; Conecuh County, 3.3 percent, down from 4 percent; Crenshaw County, 3.3 percent, up from 3.2 in March; Escambia County, 3.1 percent, down from 3.7; and Geneva County, 2.6 percent, down from 3.1 in March.

Alabama’s April labor force participation rate increased by one-tenth of a percentage point to 57.5 percent. The percentage of prime-age workers increased by two-tenths of a percentage point over the month to 79.1 percent, according to Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington. Over the year, this number increased by 1.7 percentage points from 77.4 percent. Prime-age workers are those aged 25-54 years.

Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 3.1 percent, up from March 2024’s rate of 3 percent, and up from April 2023’s rate of 2.3 percent. The rate represents 72,057 unemployed persons, compared to 70,884 in March and 52,004 in April 2023.

The number of people counted as employed increased by 20,117 over the year to a new record high of 2,263,393. The civilian labor force also reached a new record high, increasing to 2,335,450, with 40,170 more people joining over the year.

Over the year, wage and salary employment increased by 49,700 to 2.2 million. This represents a new record high for Alabama’s jobs count, with gains in the private education and health services sector (+13,700), the government sector (+9,400), and the manufacturing sector (+7,500), among others.

“Alabama’s employers are creating jobs,” continued Washington. “Our economy is supporting more jobs than ever before. We are all working together to ensure that we have the workforce to fill them.”

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates are: Shelby County at 2 percent, Morgan County at 2.1, and Cullman, Elmore, Madison, and Marshall counties at 2.2.

Counties with the highest unemployment rates are: Wilcox County at 7.7 percent, Perry County at 5.3, and Dallas County at 5 percent.

Major cities with the lowest unemployment rates are: Homewood at 1.8 percent, Alabaster, Madison, Trussville, and Vestavia Hills at 1.9, and Hoover at 2 percent.

Major cities with the highest unemployment rates are: Selma at 5.7 percent, Prichard at 4.9, and Gadsden and Mobile at 3.7 percent.