Marengo County’s July unemployment rate stands at 9.2 percent, up from June’s rate of 8.4 percent.

Marengo’s July rate is nearly a whole percentage point higher than the July 2013 rate of 8.3 percent. The unemployment rate represents 711 county residents out of work.

Gov. Robert Bentley announced Friday that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted July unemployment rate is 7 percent.

Wage and salary employment increased by 19,400 over the year. Yearly gains were seen in the leisure and hospitality sector (plus-7,800), the manufacturing sector (plus-5,700), the education and health services sector (plus-5,000), and the professional and business services sector (plus-3,300). Over the month, wage and salary employment gains were seen in the construction sector (plus-2,600), the leisure and hospitality sector (plus-1,500), the trade, transportation, and utilities sector (plus-1,400), and the manufacturing sector (plus-1,200), among others.

“An increase of nearly 20,000 jobs since last July is something that we are proud of,” Bentley said. “A large number of those jobs are in the manufacturing sector, which tend to be higher paying jobs. Additionally, we continue to see tens of thousands of jobs being advertised throughout the state, which means employers are hiring. Our efforts will continue until every Alabamian who wants a job has the opportunity to have a job.”

JobLink, the state’s online free jobs database (www.joblink.alabama.gov), registered more than 20,000 job postings in July. The Help Wanted Online (HWOL) data showed 53,321 total job ads were placed online in Alabama. The most advertised careers are: truck drivers, retail supervisors and registered nurses.

“It is not uncommon in the summer months to see the unemployment rate rise because school employees aren’t working during these months,” Alabama Department of Labor Commissioner Fitzgerald Washington said. “This is proven out in our wage and salary data this month, which shows the largest decrease in jobs came from the local education sector.”

Counties with the lowest unemployment rates are Shelby County at 5.3 percent, Baldwin County at 6.1 percent and Lee County at 6.2 percent. Counties with the highest unemployment rates are Wilcox County at 18.4 percent, Dallas County at 16.3 percent and Perry County at 15.7 percent.