(WDNG) – Employment data for Calhoun County shows fewer jobs and a smaller workforce. July unemployment numbers from the Alabama Department of Labor on Friday show a 7.7 percent unemployment rate in Calhoun County. That is slightly higher from the revised June rate of 7.5 percent due to about 75 fewer participants in the civilian labor force and about 150 fewer employed people.
The Calhoun County unemployment rate is lower than the 8.8 percent rate seen last year. Sixty-six of Alabama’s 67 counties have seen unemployment rates drop from July 2014. Statewide unemployment rates for July were at 6.2 percent. Alabama Labor Commissioner Fitzgerald Washington says the reason statewide rates are virtually unchanged from the June rate of 6.1 percent is mostly due to continued seasonal effects.
Gov. Robert Bentley says employment in July was up by more than 30,000 and is at its highest point in July since 2008. Cleburne County’s unemployment rate jumped from 6.2 percent in June to 6.8 percent in July. Etowah, St. Clair and Talladega counties all saw their unemployment rates virtually unchanged at 6.7 percent, 5.7 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively.
Shelby County continues to see the state’s lowest unemployment rates in July at 4.6 percent. Wilcox County has the state’s highest unemployment rate of 16.2 percent.