MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s unemployment rate for November was 3.1%, unchanged from October but significantly below what it was this time last year, officials said Friday.

The rate in November 2020 was 4.7%.

The jobless rate for November represented 68,673 people without work statewide compared to 105,558 in November 2020, according to a statement from the Department of Labor.

“Alabama is continuing to hold steady in regard to unemployment,” Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington said.

“We’re fortunate to not see large shifts in these numbers, even as other economic factors continue to experience pandemic related volatility. In November, more people joined the labor force, more people started working, and yet again, we recorded a new record high jobs count for 2021.”

Shelby County, located just south of Birmingham, had the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 2.0%, followed by Marshall, Cullman and Blount counties at 2.1%. Wilcox County in rural western Alabama had the state’s highest jobless rate, 9.7%.