Alabama unemployment rises to 9.6 percent | Business

The unemployment rate in Alabama as of May 2011 increased to a statewide average of 9.6 percent, up three-tenths of a percent from April's rate of 9.3 percent. According to May's report, a total of 206,809 people in Alabama are unemployed. More than 6,400 people lost their jobs as a direct result of the April 27 tornadoes.

 “We knew that the devastating storms we suffered in April were going to have an impact on unemployment. This is something that we could not have foreseen. I’m not going to go so far as to say that the entire increase can be attributed to the storms, but they’re certainly a major factor," Tom Surtees, Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director, said in a release.

According to the report, the counties with the lowest unemployment rates were: Shelby County at 6.9%, Coffee County at 7.3%, and Pike County and Madison County at 7.9%. The counties with the highest unemployment rates were Wilcox County at 21.7%, Perry County at 17.3%, and Monroe County at 16.3%.

See the full report here: http://dir.alabama.gov/docs/pressreleases/uc_may%202011%20rate%20release.pdf