Birmingham Jobs Decline
More Birmingham jobs were lost last month as Alabama's unemployment rate continued to climb.
Statewide, Alabama saw its unemployment rate increase from 10.3 percent to 10.7 percent during September, which is higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent. The state hasn't seen its unemployment rate decrease since September 2007, when it went from 3.6 percent to 3.5 percent.
Alabama had a total non-farm employment of 1,894,500 workers during September, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,898,700 workers during August and a 4.7 percent decrease from last year.
While the September unemployment rate for the Birmingham-Hoover area has not yet been released, the BLS has reported the area had a total non-farm employment of 506,400 workers for the month, which is down from 508,500 workers during August and a 3.7 percent decrease from last year.
Three industries saw an increase in employment on a month-to-month basis, including: construction by 200 jobs, professional and business services by 200 jobs and government by 1,400 jobs. The mining and logging and information industries employed the same number of workers during August and September, with 3,100 jobs and 10,700 jobs, respectively.
No industries added jobs on a yearly basis. The education and health services industry, which usually sees an increase in jobs, employed 65,500 workers during September, the same as during last year. The construction industry took the biggest hit when compared to last year, seeing an 11.2 percent decrease in jobs.
Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in employment include:
- mining and logging by 3.1 percent
- manufacturing by 8.3 percent
- trade, transportation and utilities by 3 percent
- information by 2.7 percent
- financial activities by 1.5 percent
- professional and business services by 6.6 percent
- leisure and hospitality by 2.3 percent
- other services by 2.1 percent
- government by 2.6 percent