Alabama has seen record-breaking unemployment rates over the past eight months, and Limestone County and Athens were among the counties and cities posting very low jobless rates in January.

According to figures provided by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s Office, some 2,123,398 people were employed throughout the state this January. That number broke December 2018’s revised count of 2,120,769, according to the figures.

Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted January 2019 unemployment rate is 3.8 percent, unchanged from December 2018’s rate, but below January 2018’s rate of 3.9 percent, records show. Following end-of-year revisions, 3.8 percent marks the record-low unemployment rate for Alabama.

“People are working in Alabama, employers are hiring in Alabama,” said Fitzgerald Washington, secretary of the Alabama Department of Labor. “We continue to report record numbers of people with jobs, and we are seeing fewer and fewer people counted as unemployed, which is what we like to see.”

The number of people counted as unemployed in January measured 83,406, which is the third-lowest count in history. A year ago, this number measured 86,250.

“While maintaining our record-low unemployment rate, we’ve also seen some great over-the-year growth in some of our high-wage industries,” Washington said. “Both the construction, information, and manufacturing sectors saw significant increases from January 2018 to January 2019.”

Limestone County’s unemployment rate of 3.9 percent in January was very near the state’s overall record-low rate of 3.8 percent, while Athens’ unemployment rate of 3.8 percent for January matched the state’s low rate.

Growth hotspots

Employment rates in the areas of leisure, hospitality, trade, transportation, utilities and construction rose the most over the year. Wage and salary employment during the year increased 31,500, with gains in the leisure and hospitality sector (+7,600), the trade, transportation, and utilities sector (+4,400), and the construction sector (+4,200), among others.

The construction sector experienced job growth measuring 5.0 percent over the year, the information sector experienced growth measuring 3.9 percent and the manufacturing sector experienced job growth measuring 1.4 percent over the year.

High and lows

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates are Shelby County at 3.2 percent, Marshall and Cullman counties at 3.7 percent, and Tuscaloosa, Morgan, Madison and Elmore counties at 3.8 percent. Counties with the highest unemployment rates include Wilcox County at 10.5 percent, Lowndes County at 8.2 percent and Clarke County at 7.9 percent.

Major cities with the lowest unemployment rates are Homewood at 2.7 percent, Vestavia Hills at 2.9 percent and Alabaster at 3.0 percent. Major cities with the highest unemployment rates include Selma at 8.8 percent, Prichard at 7.5 percent and Anniston at 6.1 percent.