While the unemployment figures for Alabama only slightly improved, moving from 9.3 percent in February to 9.2 percent in March, the news is much better for Dallas County and the Black Belt, where some figures improved by more than a percentage point.

Although the Black Belt counties continued to have the highest unemployment figures in the state for the month of March, the area reporter much-improved figures from one month to the next and significant improvements compared to last year.

In Dallas County, the unemployment rate fell to 15.2 percent in March compared to 16.4 percent in February. That 1.2 percent improvement from February accounted for more than 100 Dallas County residents finding employment.

In March 2010, Dallas County posted an unemployment rate of 17.7 percent.

In Wilcox County, which routinely has the worst unemployment rate in the state, the figures are a significant improvement from February. The county recorded a 20 percent unemployment figure, which is still the worst in Alabama, but is 1.2 percent better than that of February.

Wilcox County’s March 2011 unemployment figure is also an improvement over March 2010 when the county’s unemployment rate was 23 percent.

Perry County saw a .8 percent improvement in March, posting a 15.8 percent unemployment figure.

Lowndes County’s unemployment rate fell from 16.3 percent in February to 15.5 percent in March.

Overall, Alabama recorded 9.2 percent unemployment in March, a slight drop from the 9.3 percent reported in February.

“A decrease in the unemployment rate is always better than an increase,” Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees said Friday in releasing the March unemployment report. “However, we can’t get too excited because there are still nearly 200,000 Alabamians out of work. Another positive is that we are beginning to see some stabilization in unemployment compensation trends that are beginning to show a return in some sense of normalcy.”

The counties with the lowest unemployment rates in March were Shelby County (6.7 percent), Coffee County (6.9 percent) and Pike County (7.5 percent).