Unemployment Benefits

FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, file photo, job applications and information for the Gap Factory Store sit on a table during a job fair at Dolphin Mall in Miami. Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week of Aug. 2016, another sign the U.S. job market remains healthy despite a downshift in hiring in August. The Labor Department says the number of applications for jobless aid slid by 4,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 259,000, lowest since mid-July. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

(Wilfredo Lee)

The governor's office says Alabama's unemployment rate is down to 5.4 percent.

The jobless rate announced Friday for August is three-tenths of a percent less than the July number, and it is well below the August 2015 unemployment rate of 6.1 percent.

Unemployment in Alabama is still worse than average nationally, with the U.S. jobless rate at 4.9 percent.

The August unemployment rate represents 116,361 people without jobs in Alabama, compared to 123,034 in July.

Shelby County has the state's lowest unemployment rate at 4.2 percent. Wilcox County is worst with a jobless rate of 13.8 percent.