Alabama Unemployment Rate Drops in July

 Alabama's unemployment rate has fallen to 4.5 percent. A news release from the state says the jobless rate dipped one-tenth of a percent in July from June. That puts the current rate well below the unemployment rate of one year ago, when it was 5.8 percent. Alabama's jobless rate remains worse than the national rate, which has fallen to a 16-year low of 4.3 percent. But a statement from Gov. Kay Ivey says there are fewer unemployed people in Alabama than there have been in a decade. The July rate represents about 96,251 unemployed persons in Alabama, down from 100,187 in June. Shelby County in metro Birmingham has the state's lowest unemployment rate, 3.5 percent. Wilcox County in rural western Alabama is worst at 13.5 percent.