The Alabama Department of Labor (ADOL) on Friday announced that the state’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted April unemployment rate was 3.6%, down from March’s rate of 3.8%, and well below April 2020’s rate of 13.2%.

Alabama has now had the Southeast’s lowest unemployment rate for three consecutive months, as well as one of the lowest in the nation.

April’s Yellowhammer State rate represented 79,332 unemployed persons, a post-pandemic record low, compared to 84,716 in March and 288,253 in April 2020.

In April, ADOL’s Help Wanted Online (HWOL) data, which measures online job openings, registered 84,986 job listings statewide. This means there are more job openings than active job seekers.

The number of people counted as employed last month represented an increase of 253,632 over the year.

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates in April were: Shelby County at 1.9%; Marshall, Limestone, and DeKalb Counties at 2.0%; and Franklin, Cullman, and Cherokee Counties at 2.1%. Counties with the highest unemployment rates were: Wilcox County at 8.8%, Lowndes County at 8.1% and Perry County at 6.8%.

Major cities with the lowest unemployment rates were: Alabaster at 1.7%, Athens at 2.0% and Homewood at 2.1%. Major cities with the highest unemployment rates were: Selma at 7.3%, Prichard at 5.9% and Bessemer at 4.8%.

Alabama’s April unemployment rate is 3.6%, a new post -pandemic record low. Wages in Alabama reach a record high. The unemployment rate is calculated on the number of people in the workforce and the number of people who are working or not working. @GovernorKayIvey @ALWorksSystem pic.twitter.com/3KZyYaMpht

— ADOL (@al_labor) May 21, 2021

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Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn