Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees announced Friday that Alabama’s April 2011 unemployment rate is 9.3 percent, up slightly from March’s rate of 9.2 percent. The comparable rate for one year ago was 9.8 percent.

Marengo County’s rate faired the opposite, dropping .1 percent from 12 percent to 11.9 percent. The figure represents 922 out of work residents, up one from March and in increase of 55 from April 2010. April’s rate represents 199,950 unemployed persons statewide compared to 195,210 in March and 209,465 in April 2010.

The national unemployment rate for April was 9 percent, up from 8.8 percent in March.

“It appears that Alabama followed the national trend this month, as we experienced a slight increase in our unemployment rate. As I’ve noted before, these kinds of minor fluctuations are to be expected as we emerge from a recession,” said Surtees.

“With that said, Alabama continues to see positives in our unemployment data, such as the fact that the amount of payments we’re making is well below the levels of previous years, as are the number of weeks claimed and weeks compensated,” continued Surtees.