Ala unemployment rate unchanged at 6.2 percent

It was the third straight month that unemployment has dropped and was the largest one-month decline since 1983.

The Virginia Employment Commission said Friday that the state’s jobless rate in August was 4.5 percent.

The national unemployment rate had been at 5.3 percent in July. Wilcox County is worst in the state with an unemployment rate of 16 percent. Although there was no change from June, the county’s rate is 1.1 percent less than the same time previous year .

During the past year, the state’s labor force has grown by nearly 52,000 workers.

Unemployment is lowest in Shelby County, which had an August jobless rate of 4.7 percent.

The number of unemployed people statewide dropped by 7,910 to 135,285, according to the department.

There was an increase of 6,700 non-farm jobs from July to August, with the largest increases occurring in leisure/hospitality, government and trade/transportation/utilities jobs. Americans are enjoying strong job security: Applications have been below 300,000 for the past six months, which hasn’t happened since 1973. Lexington and Charleston had a 5.3 percent rate in July.