Alabama jobless rate jumps to 6.6% as woes continue

Alabama’s monthly unemployment rate jumped to 6.6% in September as the coronavirus pandemic kept up its continuing damage to the state’s economy, the government reported Friday.

The rate was a full percentage point above the August jobless rate and even worse when compared to the pre-coronavirus rate of 2.7% a year earlier.

The state’s labor secretary, Fitzgerald Washington, said fluctuations in the unemployment rate will likely continue during the pandemic, which is blamed for nearly 2,800 deaths in the state from COVID-19, the illness caused by the new virus.