While Alabama’s unemployment is at a record low, the demand for jobs has only gotten higher as 33.3 percent more online job ads have been posted so far this year than the same time last year.
Data collected and analyzed by the Alabama Department of Labor’s Labor Market Information (LMI) Division shows that as of June 2022, the yearly comparison of online job ads is 116,604, up 33.3 percent from June 2021.
The monthly total of online job ads for June 2022 is up 14.5 percent with 39,718 new online ads. Only 60,338 people are considered unemployed in Alabama as of June.
The five occupations with the most online job ads are for registered nurses, heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, retail salespersons, sales reps, wholesale and manufacturing, and retail supervisors with 18,011 ads placed for those occupations in June.
Healthcare employers by far offered the most online jobs.
The top two employers posting the most online ads in June were UAB Health System with 1,481 and Huntsville Hospital with 1,462. The rest of the top 10 were: Walmart/Sam’s (1,187), Encompass Health (866), Baptist Health (723), University of Alabama at Birmingham (652), Regions (648), Lowe’s (585), University of Alabama (498), and USA Health System (423).
Nancy Dennis, director of public relations for the Alabama Retail Association, said retail and nursing are consistently the industries topping the list in job openings.
Both industries were already short on workforce before Covid-19 and the pandemic has only exacerbated the issue as nurses were thrust into the national spotlight and retail workers were either laid off or quit in droves. Many decided to leave the industry altogether.
The job postings cover a wide range of salaries, with 35 percent of positions offering $35,000 or under. On the other end of the spectrum, 25 percent of job ads offered salaries of $75,000 or higher. In the medium, 22 percent have salaries in the $50,000 to $75,000 range and 18 percent have salaries in the $35,000 to $49,000 range.
The HWOL data is compiled from all online job postings in the state, including those posted on the state’s free online jobs database, AlabamaWorks.alabama.gov, and other sources, such as traditional job boards, corporate boards, and social media sites.
