Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington announced Friday that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted April unemployment rate is 5.4 percent, down from March’s rate of 5.8 percent, and well below April 2016’s rate of 5.8 percent. April’s rate represents 119,256 unemployed persons, compared to 128,610 in March and 126,490 in April 2016. 2,088,884 people were working in April, up from 2,080,300 in March and 2,038,043 in April 2016.

The last time the unemployment rate was at or below 5.4 percent was in May 2008, when it measured 5.2 percent.

Covington County’s jobless rate was 5.7 percent in April, down from 6.5 percent in March of 2017, and 6.0 percent in April of 2016. The number represented 868 people who were unemployed.

In the same month, Escambia County had a jobless rate of 5.0 percent; Conecuh was 6.3 percent; Butler was 5.5 percent; Crenshaw was 4.4 percent; Coffee was 4.6 percent; and Geneva was 4.2 percent.