Hoover's unemployment rate was 3% in September, up from 2.4% a year earlier and level with June's high. About 1,500 residents were looking for work.
Hoover’s unemployment rate was 3% in September, according to preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That matches June as the highest monthly rate of the year so far.
A year earlier, in September 2025, the rate was 2.4%.
About 1,503 Hoover residents were out of work and looking for a job in September. That is 327 more than a year earlier. The number of residents with a job fell by 776 over the same year, to 48,055.
The figures come from the bureau’s Local Area Unemployment Statistics for Hoover. They count where people live, not where they work. The figures are not seasonally adjusted, so the fair comparison is with the same month a year earlier.
How Hoover compares
Hoover’s rate is still below Alabama’s, Jefferson County’s and the nation’s. Homewood, about six miles north, moved above Hoover in September after sitting below it in August.
| Place | September 2026 | September 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Vestavia Hills | 2.8% | 2.2% |
| Hoover | 3.0% | 2.4% |
| Shelby County | 3.0% | 2.4% |
| Homewood | 3.2% | 2.3% |
| Alabama | 3.7% | 3.0% |
| Jefferson County | 3.8% | 3.1% |
| United States | 4.0% | 4.3% |
| Birmingham | 4.4% | 3.7% |
Every local rate in the table rose over the year. The national rate fell. Vestavia Hills is about seven miles east of Hoover and Birmingham about 10 miles northeast.
The other rates come from the bureau’s local series for Jefferson County, Shelby County, Alabama, Birmingham, Homewood and Vestavia Hills. The U.S. figure is the national rate without seasonal adjustment, so it compares like with like.
The year so far
Hoover’s rate has moved through 2026 like this, according to the bureau:
| Month | Rate | Residents out of work |
|---|---|---|
| January | 2.2% | 1,074 |
| February | 2.4% | 1,204 |
| March | 2.1% | 1,063 |
| April | 2.0% | 967 |
| May | 2.6% | 1,291 |
| June | 3.0% | 1,506 |
| July | 2.9% | 1,455 |
| August | 2.9% | 1,439 |
| September | 3.0% | 1,503 |
The bureau revised August slightly with this release. It now counts 1,439 Hoover residents out of work that month, down from 1,442 in its first estimate. The rate stayed at 2.9%.
Hoover’s labor force, the residents working or looking for work, was 49,558 in September. That is 449 fewer than a year earlier.
What it means for you
- The rise is steady, not sudden. Hoover’s rate has been at or near 3% since June. Each of those months is higher than the same month in 2025.
- Fewer residents are working. The count of employed Hoover residents is down 776 on the year. The labor force is down 449, so the job count fell further than the number of residents in the labor market.
- These are early figures. The bureau marks September as preliminary. It can revise them next month, as it did with August.
- Where people live, not where they work. The Hoover figures count Hoover residents, wherever their job is. They say nothing directly about jobs at Hoover businesses.
Our August jobs story has the earlier comparison. For more on Hoover’s population, incomes and households, see our Hoover population page. New openings in town are on our new businesses page.
How to read these figures
The unemployed are people without a job who looked for one in the past four weeks. People not looking, including most retirees and full-time students, are not counted either way.
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