St. Clair County March unemployment rate fell to 2.5 percent, down from February’s rate of 2.7 percent.

Alabama’s jobless numbers fell to 3.8 percent, a drop of 0.2 percent from February’s rate of 4.

March’s rate represents 84,670 unemployed persons, compared to 91,041 in February and 57,895 in March 2020. Alabama is comfortably below the national average of 6.0 percent.

“Once again, our unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since the pandemic began. We’re still not where we were before, but tremendous progress is being made,” said Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington. “We have more jobs in March than we’ve had all year, and we’re seeing monthly wage growth in several industries.”

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates are: Shelby and Cullman Counties at 2.0 percent, Limestone, Franklin, and Blount Counties at 2.1 percent and Marshall and Cleburne Counties at 2.2 percent.

Counties with the highest unemployment rates are: Wilcox County at 11.6 percent, Lowndes County at 10.6 percent and Perry County at 8.1 percent.

Major cities with the lowest unemployment rates are: Madison at 1.8 percent, Alabaster, Homewood, Hoover, and Vestavia Hills at 1.9 percent, and Athens at 2.1 percent.

Major cities with the highest unemployment rates are: Prichard at 10.0 percent, Selma at 9.4 percent and Bessemer at 6.4 percent.