BBA Data Debrief – May 2025
Written by: BBA Market Intelligence Manager Tatianna Turrentine-Long
Each month, the Alabama Labor Market Information (LMI) newsletter provides data and analysis on the workforce, including labor force participation rates, unemployment rates and employment trends on a statewide and regional level. In coordination with the LMI, the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA)’s Data Debrief for May 2025 highlights changes in our regional labor market and provides essential insights.
Key Point #1. The state of Alabama’s unemployment rate remains mostly unchanged between April 2025 and May 2025, seasonally and non-seasonally adjusted.
Seasonally adjusted data represents raw, or unadjusted, data that has been statistically modified to remove the predictable, recurring effects of seasonal factors like weather, holidays and school schedules. Non-seasonally adjusted data refers to data that has not undergone the process of seasonal adjustment. This means that the effects of predictable, recurring seasonal patterns have not been removed.
Non-seasonally adjusted unemployment for the state slightly rose by .1%, and the seasonally adjusted unemployment between April 2025 and May 2025 remained unchanged at 3.3%. This trend is also the same for the labor force participation rate, with a slight decrease by .4% from April 2025 to May 2025. These seem to mirror national trends as the unemployment rate continues to remain unchanged month-to-month (4.2%).
Key Point #2. While employment numbers remain largely unchanged, we are seeing some changes in weekly and hourly earnings at the state and regional levels. At the state level, we have seen slight decreases for some industries like Construction (April 2025: $1,396, May 2025: $1,321). Other industries have seen slight increases, such as Professional and Business Services (April 2025: $1,384, May 2025: $1,391) and Trade/Utilities (April 2025: $927, May 2025: $948). Production Workers within the Manufacturing industry also experienced a slight increase in average weekly earnings from $1,098 in April 2025 to $1,121 in May 2025. For the Birmingham region at large, there was a slight decrease in weekly earnings from $1,159 in April to $1,129 in May. There was also a slight decrease in the number of employees from 572,000 to 571,300 over that 1-month period, and in the number of hours worked per week.
Key Point #3. The Birmingham region has experienced a sharp decrease in net month-to-month job growth compared to last month’s report (-700 from April 2025). Birmingham has seen the most decrease in service-providing industries, including Wholesale Trade (-200), Financial Activities (-100), Professional Businesses and Services (-1,400) and Government (-200).
Despite the decreases in these industries, some industries experienced a slight increase in employment from April to May, like Construction (April 2025: 30,400, May 2025: 30,700), Manufacturing (April 2025: 18,000, May 2025: 18,200), Transportation and Warehousing (April 2025: 27,100, May 2025: 27,300 and Food Service (April 2025: 41,300, May 2025: 42,200).
The Birmingham region is not the only region to experience a decrease in month-to-month and year-to-year employment. For example, Tuscaloosa and Auburn-Opelika MSA employment changed by -200 and -500 from April 2025 to May 2025 respectively, while other regions, such as Dothan and Florence MSA, had no month-to-month job growth.
In conclusion, these trends that we are seeing are not solely a reflection of our region’s performance in workforce, but a reflection of the state of workforce statewide and nationally.
Still, the Birmingham region is uniquely positioned and advantageous to the potential opportunities to grow our workforce, attract within our target industries and support our businesses.
The BBA is the leading organization in helping the region achieve its goals of increasing labor force participation, productivity and reducing unemployment and underemployment by working diligently to attract new businesses and supporting businesses as they expand.