Alabama's unemployment rate has risen for the third month.
State Commerce Secretary Tom Surtees says April's rate of 6.9 percent is up from 6.7 percent in March. That's higher than the rate a year ago of 6.5 percent.
Alabama began the year at 6.1 percent unemployment in January and then increased to 6.4 percent in February.
Surtees says the rise in April is due in part to how unemployment figures are seasonally adjusted. He says Alabama did not meet seasonal expectations for April, but Greene County was the only Alabama county showing a higher unemployment rate for the month. The county figures are not seasonally adjusted.
Shelby County had the lowest unemployment rate at 4.2 percent and Wilcox County had the highest at 15.5 percent.