The Montgomery Advertiser is reporting a 60 percent decrease statewide of plant closings and layoffs.  The upbeat news, which was published on a state run website that tracks Alabama’s employment market, is welcome.  Alabama, like most of its sister states, has had its own share economic setbacks.

The state has seen nearly 13,000 layoffs resulting in mass closings of businesses in the last year alone.  Approximately 3,500 of these cuts occurred in 2010, a trend that suggests an economy, perhaps, on the mend.  As the Advertiser article points out, though, state statistical data only tracks layoffs of at least 25 workers who lose their jobs at the same time from the same location so these figures do not take into account, for instance, smaller businesses or self-employed workers.

Still all signs are positive and let’s hope indicative of the country as a whole.