Employment

MONTGOMERY (AP) — Alabama’s unemployment rate is unchanged at a record-low 2.7%, well below the jobless level from a year ago, state officials said Friday.

A news release from the Alabama Department of Labor said the December rate of 2.7% matched the November rate and represented about 2.2 million people with jobs and 61,458 people without work.

The November rate was below the state’s jobless number of 3.8% in December 2018 and better than the comparable U.S. unemployment rate of 3.5% for last month.

“For the 11th month in a row, our job growth has met or surpassed the nation’s,” Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington said in a statement. “We’ve gained over 46,000 jobs since last December, and we continue to see employers posting job ads.”

The average weekly wage for private businesses reached $875.44 in December, representing a monthly increase of $15.14.

Shelby County in metro Birmingham had the state’s lowest jobless rate at 1.8%, and Wilcox County in rural west Alabama was highest at 6.8%.