Chamber president hopeful job creation is forthcoming

A sluggish national economy has trickled down to the Wiregrass, and unemployment continued to climb over much of the area in July.

If there is any good news to follow, it is that the most populated counties in the area have jobless rates that are below state and national averages.

Houston County unemployment for July was 4.9 percent, compared to 5.5 percent for the state and 6 percent for the country. (Seasonally adjusted state and national rates are 5.1 and 5.7 percent, respectively.)

Counties with comparable rates were Coffee (4.9), Geneva (5.1), and Dale (5.2).

Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Parker finds that encouraging.

“Our economy, like the weather, has its hot and cold spells,” Parker said. “Nationally we are in a colder period with slower growth, but our area continues to be fairly even year-over-year with real estate sales, tax collections, and building permits.”

Dothan Metropolitan Area statistical data, provided by the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations, shows the area lost 400 local and state government jobs over the last month.

“Wage and salary employment declined 13,200 from June to July with most of the monthly downturn due to seasonal losses in the education component of local government,” said Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees, by way of a press release.

Another 100 manufacturing jobs were also lost last month in the Dothan area.

“Some of the small business tax credits for 2008 are helping some sectors, while other sectors have been hurt due to oil and raw material costs,” Parker said, adding that he anticipates the recent drop in oil prices will compliment small business tax cuts provided by the stimulus package.

“I am hopeful the first quarter of 2009 will be ready to explode due to some pent up demand,” he said.
Parker said jobs could also be available by way of federal funding for road construction.

“From a stimulus standpoint there is a lot of interest to see some federal support for a package that would enhance road construction activity, as that would be a way to create more jobs and address some of our infrastructure decay in our state and nation,” Parker said.

“When we are only taking care of one mile out of every seven miles of road in our country, there is an opportunity to work on this issue and stimulate our economy.”

Unemployment in Barbour and Henry counties remains highest in the region at 8.5 and 6.4 percent, respectively.

The lowest unemployment rates in the state during July were in Shelby (3.7), Madison (4.1) and Baldwin (4.3) counties. The highest rates were reported in Chambers (14.4), Wilcox (13.3) and Perry (11.9) counties.

Among the state’s metro areas, the highest unemployment for July was in Florence-Muscle Shoals (6.2) and the lowest was in Huntsville (4.2).