Alabama's unemployment rate has declined to 6.6 percent.
Gov. Robert Bentley said Friday the September rate is an improvement from 6.9 percent in August.
The preliminary numbers show Alabama had about 6,600 fewer unemployed people than in August. But the preliminary figures also show that the number of employed Alabamians declined by about 1,600 and the civilian labor force shrank by nearly 8,200.
Alabama's unemployment rate is higher than the 6.4 percent recorded in September 2013, and it remains above the national unemployment figure of 5.9 percent.
Alabama Labor Commissioner Fitzgerald Washington says every Alabama county registered a decline in unemployment in September.
