The unemployment rate in Calhoun County and statewide rose in July from the previous month.
Unemployment in Calhoun County rose to 9.4 percent in July, according to numbers from the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations. The June unemployment rate for the county was 9.2 percent.
Statewide, unemployment was up from 7.8 percent in June to 8.3 percent in July. In a press release, officials from the department stated that the increase may be due to a rise in the number of “partial claims,” which are filed by workers who are laid off, but for a specified time of less than three weeks. Those claims peak in July and December, the release said.
Neighboring St. Clair County was among the counties with the lowest unemployment, at 7.9 percent. Talladega County had 10.6 percent unemployment in July; in Clay, unemployment was 11.6 percent; and in Randolph County, the rate was 11.1 percent. Cleburne County had 9.3 percent unemployment in July, and Cherokee County had 8.7 percent.
Unemployment was lowest in Shelby County, at 6 percent, and highest in Wilcox County, at 19.6 percent.
