Chilton County’s preliminary unemployment rate for May 2014 remains at 5.6 percent, the same as the county’s revised unemployment rate for April.

The county’s preliminary rate has increased slightly from 5.5 percent in May 2013.

Alabama’s unemployment rate for May decreased by 0.1 percent from April’s rate of 6.9 percent, remaining below May 2013’s rate of 7.5 percent.

The seasonally adjusted preliminary rate for May is 6.8 percent, which represents 147,068 unemployed persons, compared to 147, 229 in April and 138, 432 in May 2013.

“We have seen increases in wage and salary employment for the past four months,” Alabama Department of Labor Commissioner Tom Surtees said in a press release. “In fact, the number of jobs supported by Alabama’s economy is at its highest point since January 2009, when the recession really began to affect Alabama’s employment picture.”

The number of people in the labor force decreased to 2,147,125 in May from 2,148,798 in April.

The number of people employed decreased to 2,000,057 in May from 2,001,569 in April.

“Additionally, more than 26,000 job orders were placed on JobLink, Alabama’s free online jobs database, in May. This is, by far, the most job orders ever recorded in the site’s nine year history,” Surtees said. “This, combined with the more than 50,000 jobs announced by the Alabama Department of Commerce, show that employers are hiring in Alabama.”

The state’s Help Wanted Online (HWOL) data, which tracks online job postings in the state, shows that 27,610 ads were posted in May.

Truck drivers, retail sales workers and registered nurses are among the most in-demand jobs in Alabama.

The counties with the lowest unemployment rates are: Shelby County at 4.4 percent, Lee County at 4.8 percent, and Cullman and Baldwin counties at 5.1 percent.

The counties with the highest unemployment rates are: Wilcox County at 15.6 percent, Dallas County at 12.1 percent and Lowndes County at 11.9 percent.