Employment in Alabama increased for the first time in three months during February, according to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations.

Director Tom Surtess announced recently that wage and salary employment in the state increased by 11,300 over the month with the majority of the monthly upturn resulting from employment gains in professional and business services, government, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and educational and health services.

Surtees also announced that Alabama’s unemployment rate for February remains unchanged at 11.1 percent. This rate represents 227,717 unemployed persons.

“We are starting to see some consistent signs that our economy has begun to rebound,” Surtees said. “Our state showed employment gains for the first time in three months. In addition, new unemployment benefit claims have fallen 61 percent since the third week of January.”

The number of people filing new claims in February 2010 is estimated to be 25,000. Comparitively, new claims for February 2009 were 41,000, while new claims in February 2008 were 20,000.

“We’re seeing nearly half the amount of people signing up for unemployment assistance this year than we were a year ago,” Surtees said. “We are hopeful that this is a positive sign, pointing towards some relief from the recession.”

The counties with the lowest unemployment rates were: Madison at 8.3 percent; Shelby at 8.5 percent; and Coffee at 8.5 percent.

The counties with the highest unemployment rates were Wilcox at 27 percent; Monroe at 21.4 percent; and Conecuh at 20.3 percent.

For the tri-county area, St. Clair County had the highest unemployment rate at 11.6 percent. Jefferson County’s unemployment stood at 10.9 percent and Shelby had a rate of 8.5 percent.

Other area counties include: Talladega, 14 percent; Calhoun, 11.3 percent; and Blount, 11.1 percent.

The unemployment rate for the metro area of Birmingham-Hoover was 10.7 percent, a decrease from 11 percent in January, but a significant increase from February 2009 when the rate stood at 8.4 percent.

Decatur had the highest metro-area unemployment rate at 12.7 percent, followed closely by the Mobile metro area, which was 12.6 percent.

The lowest metro area unemployment rate was in Huntsville where the rate was recorded at 8.8 percent.

Regionally, Alabama was in the middle of the pack of southeastern states with its rate of 11.1 percent. South Carolina recorded the highest unemployment rate at 12.5 percent, followed by Florida at 12.2 percent.

The lowest rate was recorded in Georgia where the rate was 10.5 percent. Tennessee and Kentucky also recorded rates below 11 percent.