Alabama’s latest unemployment numbers remain unchanged from this time last year. APR’s student reporter, Katie Willem, has more…
The newest jobless figures from the Alabama Department of Labor are for May. The State’s unemployment rate stands at 6.1 percent, which is unchanged compared to the month before, or May of 2015.
The state is less than twenty-five thousand jobs away from having two million people at work around the state. This is the highest number the state economy has supported in the last twenty years.
Unemployment rates in the state are higher than the national average, which is just under five percent for the month of May.
Shelby County has the lowest unemployment rates at just over four percent. Wilcox County still has the highest jobless rate in Alabama at thirteen and a half percent. Lowndes County is close behind at just under eleven percent.
Storms moving through Huntsville damaged three apartment buildings severely enough to displace residents.
Winter Park Apartments property manager Alejandra Chavez says 13 families can't stay in their homes because of roof damage that buildings sustained in the Wednesday night storms.
Huntsville Fire Chief David Whitman says firefighters are unsure about the structural integrity of the buildings after strong winds damaged the roofs of three of the buildings.
Chavez says residents will be moved to another property once it's safe to go in and move their things. It's unclear if any of the displaced residents will be able to return to their homes.
No one at the apartment complex was hurt.
It’s summer in Alabama and many people are spending more time outside.
Weather forecasters warn today’s high temperature could reach ninety six degrees statewide. That doesn’t even count the heat index, which shows how hot it feels.
Connor Baird is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham. He says it won’t be too hot to have your animals outside but there are some things you need to take care of…
“Make sure they have plenty of shade and if they don’t I would probably monitor what is going on outside for the most parts. Don’t take too long of walks. They need that, you know, to get rid of some extra energy or you can let them outside and certainly kind of monitor them and bring them in pretty quickly and make sure they have plenty water to drink.”
Baird says today will be one of the hottest days so far this year, but no record breaking highs are expected. Forecasters expect slightly better temperatures for the Father’s Day weekend.