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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

Unemployment numbers for December are in showing an only 1.8% percent unemployment rate for Chilton County.

The decrease in unemployment reflects that 65 more people were employment in December than in November.

At the state level, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December was a slight increase to 2.8%. (It had been 2.7% in November.)

Shelby County continues to be the county with the lowest unemployment rate at 1.5%

“As we close out our economic reporting for 2022, I’m pleased to say that Alabama has recovered well from the pandemic and has maintained positive momentum throughout the year,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in a press release. “We broke records all year long, reminding everyone that Alabama is the best place to live, to work and open a business. Our wages are up, jobs are plentiful and still growing and we’re seeing some of our highest employment in major sectors in more than a decade. I couldn’t be more proud of the progress we’ve made.”

The state also set a new record high for the number of people employed at 2,120,500, according to the Alabama Department of Labor. This growth was mostly seen in education, health services, professional, business and governmental-related jobs.

“Our economy is supporting more jobs than ever before, with the addition of nearly 56,000 jobs since last year,” said Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington in a press release. “This represents over-the-year job growth of 2.7%, which, excluding immediate pandemic recovery, is one of the highest job growth rates in more than 20 years. Also, we’ve got record high employment in the trade, transportation, and utilities sector, and more people are working in the manufacturing and construction sectors since 2008.”