When Governor Bentley and the new GOP-led legislature took the reigns together in January of 2011, Alabama’s unemployment rate was higher than the national average. Alabama’s unemployment rate sat at 9.3% while the national rate was 9.1%.

Since then, Alabama has consistently outperformed the country as a whole. A clear contrast has emerged between the Alabama GOP’s pro-growth agenda and the tax, spend, and regulate tactics of the Democrats on the federal level.

Last month, while the rest of the country remained over 8%, Alabama’s unemployment rate was down to 7.2%. Governor Bentley has some work left today before he can draw a paycheck — but it’s hard to argue that the state’s not heading in the right direction.

I used data from the Department of Industrial Relations to create the below graph. It gives a quick snapshot of how Alabama is performing compared to the U.S. as a whole.