Covington County’s unemployment rate for the month of September is 0.4 percent less than the state’s 9.8 percent, according to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations.

The unemployment rate for the county is 9.4 percent in September, down 0.1 percent from August.

Covington County has 1,588 persons unemployed, according to the ADIR.

On the state unemployment overall, ADIR Director Tom Surtees said the state saw some “positive indicators.”

“For the first time in seven months, we are able to report a decline in the number of initial unemployment compensation claims,” Surtees said in a news release.

Since September 2010, the county’s unemployment rate has increased 0.7 percent.

-Andrew Garner