Alabama's unemployment rate rose slightly in May as graduates entered the workforce, but the state's numbers for wage and salary employment at the same time measured at a high not seen in a decade.

Last month, 2,042,400 Alabamians were working. The last time the state saw such a number was December 2007, when the number was 2,045,800.

In May alone, more than 7,000 people were added to the numbers of those earning a wage or salary.

Over the past year, wage and salary employment increased by 21,600. Major strides came in the manufacturing sector (+4,600), the leisure and hospitality sector (+4,400), and the professional and business services sector (+4,000), among others.

Alabama Secretary of Labor Fitzgerald Washington said the number for May was the second largest ever recorded.

Alabama's preliminary, seasonally adjusted May unemployment rate is 3.9 percent, an increase from April's rate of 3.8 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.6 percent.

The rate represents 85,634 unemployed persons, compared to 83,151 in April and 98,713 in May 2017.

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates are Shelby County at 2.7 percent, Cullman County at 3.1 percent, and Marshall, Elmore, and Baldwin Counties at 3.2 percent.

Counties with the highest unemployment rates are Wilcox County at 8.9 percent, Greene County at 7.2 percent and Clarke County at 6.9 percent.