Alabama’s unemployment rate has now fallen for both of the first two months of 2021, with February’s rate decreasing to 4.0%.

The Alabama Department of Labor (ADOL) announced the news in a release on Friday morning. In January, Alabama’s unemployment rate was 4.3%.

The 4% unemployment rate reported Friday is still above the 2.6% rate the state enjoyed in February 2020, the last month before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Alabama.

“The unemployment rate continues to drop and is getting closer to the lows we enjoyed pre-pandemic. While this is good news, the number of unemployed people is still higher than last year,” ADOL Secretary Fitzgerald Washington said in a statement.

According to numbers provided by ADOL, Alabama had 91,065 unemployed persons seeking work in February. The state had 97,725 in the same position in January.

“Employment assistance is the key to helping reduce this number, and the Alabama Career Center System can help. There are 52 locations around the state that can help the unemployed and the underemployed,” remarked Washington.

The counties with the lowest unemployment rate in January were Shelby (2.1%), Blount and Cullman (2.2%), and Franklin and Limestone (2.3%).

Cities performing best were the suburbs of Birmingham and Huntsville, such as Alabaster and Madison.

The worst performing counties in the state are in the Black Belt region of Alabama. Both Wilcox and Lowndes Counties suffered from unemployment rates of over 11% in February.

Speaking on Alabama’s statewide results, Washington noted, “As COVID cases go down and vaccinations increase, we hope to see improvements in all industries. In addition, as travel picks up and thoughts turn to vacations, the leisure and hospitality industry should see their numbers looking even better.”

Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.