Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees announced Friday that Alabama’s August unemployment rate fell to 9.9 percent, down from July’s rate of 10 percent.

Marengo County’s rate fared even better, shedding nearly a full percent down to 12.6.

“We continue to see minor fluctuations in our unemployment rate, but I think the better indicator of our job market is the fact that we are consistently seeing our employment numbers rise, which is definitely a good sign,” Surtees said. “This means that more people are going to work in Alabama.”

August’s rate represents 213,412 unemployed persons, down from 215,631 in July.

Statewide, there were over 28,000 more jobs than there were at the beginning of this year. In August, statewide employment was 1,949,824, compared to January’s employment, which was 1,921,819.

“In addition, we saw more hits on our online jobs database, our Career Centers have more active job orders, and we have the most new jobseeker resumes than at any point during the year – all of these stats point to the fact that people are gaining confidence in the job market,” Surtees continued.

JobLink, Alabama’s free online jobs database, registered over 11,000 hits in August, with more than 14,000 new jobseeker resumes posted.

The Alabama Career Center System recorded more than 12,000 active job orders.