Alabama’s unemployment rate for January dropped to 4.3% which is the lowest level since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic a year ago. While that’s still well above the pre-pandemic level of 2.7% of January 2020, the rate was better than the revised December unemployment rate of 4.7%; it was also below the U.S. unemployment rate of 6.3% for the month.

The latest rate represents 97,726 people without work across the state compared to 106,318 in December.  Roughly 2.16 million people are employed in the state; that’s an increase of about 2,600 from December.

Locally, the Cherokee County rate stands at just 2.8%, with that same number posted in DeKalb County; Cleburne County is slightly lower at 2.7% – with Calhoun County at 4.5% and Etowah County at 4.6%.

Shelby County had the state’s lowest rate at 2.3%, followed by Blount County at 2.4%, and Cullman and Limestone counties, both posted rates of 2.5% – meanwhile, Wilcox County had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 12.4%.

(AL.COM/www.al.com)