Unemployment rises in county, state

Franklin County’s unemployment rate rose to 10.7 percent in June, up from the 9.4 percent reported in May.

That number represents 1,417 county residents who filed jobless claims in May. That is up from 1,241 in May.

The state of Alabama’s jobless claims rose from 9.6 to 9.9 percent.

June’s rate represents 213,975 unemployed persons, compared to 206,578 last month and 197,780 in June 2010.

“While we are disappointed to report any increase in our seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, we keep in mind the contributing factors that led us here,” Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees said.

“We still have hundreds of Alabamians unemployed as a direct result of the tornadoes of last April and the national unemployment rate also continues to rise. On the positive side, we have observed an uptick in the number of discouraged workers re-entering the job market in their employment search. There are over 33,000 more Alabamians working in June than in January, but during this same period over 50,000 came into the workforce. ”

The counties with the lowest unemployment rates were: Shelby County at 7.7 percent, Coffee County at 8.4 percent and Limestone County at 8.7 percent. The counties with the highest unemployment rates were Wilcox County at 23.4 percent, Perry County at 19.9 percent and Dallas County at 19.1 percent.

Northwest Alabama counties reported rates as follows: Lauderdale at 9.6 percent, Colbert at 10.2 percent, Lawrence at 11.2 percent, Marion at 12.6 percent and Winston at 15 percent.