Gov. Robert Bentley announced that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally-adjusted October unemployment rate is 5.9 percent, down from September’s rate of 6.0 percent and below October 2014’s rate of 6.2 percent.

Franklin County is emblematic of the state situation with an October 2015 unemployment rate of 5.9 percent, down from 6.2 percent in September.

“More jobs are being created, Alabama’s unemployment rate continues to drops and our economy is growing,” Bentley said. “The wage and salary employment is at its highest level for the year. It has not been this high in almost seven years. We are one step closer to full employment.”

“Not only are we seeing the highest wage and salary employment numbers of the year, we’ve also surpassed 2015 growth expectation,” Department of Labor Commissioner Fitzgerald Washington said.