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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Chilton County’s unemployment rate jumped up a bit after the start of the new year according to January’s unemployment data that was released by the Alabama Department of Workforce earlier in March.

Chilton County’s unemployment rate for January sits at 3.2%, which jumped up from December 2024’s rate of 2.8% and January 2024’s rate of 2.7%. These rates represent 638 unemployed persons in Chilton County for January, 572 in December 2024 and 540 in January 2024. The county’s employment numbers also dipped a bit with 19,454 persons counted as employed in Chilton County in January, down from 19,607 in December 2024, but up from the 19,318 in January 2024.

Shelby County sits with the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 2.7%, followed by Elmore, Limestone, Marshall and St. Clair Counties at 2.8%, and Lee Madison and Morgan Counties at 2.9%. Greene County now has the state’s highest unemployment rate at 9.1%, followed by Wilcox County at 6.9% and Perry County at 6.6%.

Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January is 3.3%, which remained the same from December 2024. This year’s January unemployment rate is higher than January 2024’s rate of 2.9%. The rates represent 78,288 unemployed persons in January, 78.478 in December 2024 and 66,845 in January 2024. The state’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is just slightly higher at 3.4%.

“We continue to see gains in the participation of prime-age workers in Alabama,” Greg Reed, Alabama Department of Workforce Secretary, said. “That means that more than three out of four of these workers are in the labor force, and they are working. We will continue our efforts to increase this number overall, by increasing training opportunities and targeting populations that have traditionally been marginalized when it comes to labor force participation.”

Alabama labor force participation rate for January held steady at 57.6%, and the percentage of prime-age workers, those aged 25-54 years old, increased by three tenths to 78.9%. Also, the number of people counted as employed in the state increased by 23,534 over the year to a new record high of 2,285,919. The civilian labor force also increased to a new record high with 34,977 more people joining over the year, raising it to 2,363,919.