Alabama Unemployment Insurance

The Alabama Department of Labor oversees the Unemployment Compensation Division, Unemployment Compensation program, which serves the unemployed throughout the state. As of September 2016, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate was 5.7 percent. The Alabama Unemployment Compensation (UC) program disburses unemployment insurance benefits that help unemployed and underemployed workers with supplemental income to take care of necessary expenses for up to 26 weeks.

State employer taxes finance the unemployment compensation program through federal and state unemployment taxes. Employees do not pay unemployment tax in Alabama. Some employers are not required to pay unemployment tax and prefer to reimburse the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund for benefits paid to their employees dollar for dollar.