MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s unemployment rate dipped slightly to 3% as the number of people employed in the state reached its highest point in more than two years, officials said Friday.
The February jobless rate fell one-tenth of a percent from January and represented 68,703 people without jobs compared to more than 85,000 a year earlier, when the rate was 3.8%, according to a statement from the Alabama Department of Labor.
The total number of people employed in the state increased by 25,456 over the year to almost 2.2 million, the agency said, the highest point since January 2020 before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Total weekly wages in private employment increase to $984, which was nearly $63 more than last year.
Shelby County in metro Birmingham had the state’s lowest jobless rate at 2.1%, slightly lower than Cullman County in north Alabama at 2.2%. Wilcox County in rural west Alabama had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 10.5% followed by adjoining Lowndes County at 7.9%.