Career education, better jobs needed to reverse Black Belt population decline, UA report says

State planners must help create well-paying jobs “so that the Black Belt’s best export is not their people,” according to a paper released Tuesday by the University of Alabama’s Education Policy Center.

The paper, part of a series of briefings on the economy of the Black Belt, points out that while the rate of adults working or seeking work in the state is moving in the right direction, Alabama’s Black Belt counties have a labor force participation rate 20 points below the state average. And it’s been that way for almost three decades, the report states.

In April 2017 Alabama’s statewide labor force participation of 57.1% lagged far behind the national rate of 63.3%. Statewide initiatives are showing progress, “with a full percentage point improvement in labor force participation rate in just two-and-one-half years, to 58.1% in January 2020. This one-year improvement from 2018 to 2019 was sixth best among all states,” the paper says.

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