The state’s unemployment rate at 3.5 percent remains below the national rate of 4.7 percent. Part of what keeps the state’s jobless rate low is the fortunes of the Tennessee Valley.

The Huntsville Metropolitan Area, which includes Limestone County, had the lowest jobless rate in October among metro areas statewide at 2.3 percent. The unemployment rate was 2.5 percent in Marshall, 2.6 percent in Morgan and 3.2 percent in Jackson.

Madison and Limestone counties added about 1,600 jobs in October, according to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations. Of those, 300 jobs were in the information sector, 200 in warehousing and about 100 each in the retail, professional and scientific, financial and federal and local government sectors.

“I think the overall diversity of our job market in Limestone accounts for the low unemployment rates,” said Limestone County Economic Development Association President Tom Hill. “We have NASA, Redstone Arsenal, and contractors are ramping up for the Ares program.”

For the past two years, NASA’s focus for the Ares 1 launch vehicle and Ares 5 cargo vehicle programs has been safely delivering a man on the moon and establishing a permanent base from which to launch a trip to Mars.

Steve Cook, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center Exploration Launch Office said recently that $1.1 billion of the Ares budget has been set aside for contracts with small businesses, disadvantaged businesses, women-owned companies, and historically black colleges and universities.

The governor has said that preliminary data show Alabama had 261 new and expanding industry announcements in 2007. Those economic development projects resulted in more than 15,000 new job announcements for the year. The largest of those announcements was the ThyssenKrupp steel and stainless steel processing plant Alabama won in May. That project alone accounts for 2,700 announced new jobs, but that does not include the 29,000 construction jobs associated with the project.

While Hill could not say what’s in the future for Limestone, he said recruiters are hopeful of some major announcements in 2008.

“Somehow with Delphi being in the ramp-down phase in 2008, we hopefully will have some announcements coming to temper that,” said Hill.

Over the past 12 months, non-agricultural employment increased by 24,900 in Alabama.

Alabama’s 3.1 percent unemployment rate for October was the lowest in state history.

David Berkowitz, director of the Center for Management of Science and Technology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, said an unemployment rate below 3 percent is approaching full employment - meaning that everyone who wants a job has one.

While most of the job news is upbeat, first-time unemployment claims in Alabama rose by nearly 1,000 for the week ended Dec. 15, compared with the same period last year.

Local residents can learn more about job opportunities when the Greater Limestone Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with Athens State University and the Limestone County Economic Development Association present a one-day forum Feb. 7. NASA officials as well as representatives of several corporations will attend the business forum to explain opportunities for contracts. The cost of the forum is $30 and includes continental breakfast and lunch. Registration will open Jan. 2. For more information, visit the Web site at www.frances.b.thompson@nasa.gov.