Alabama Department of Labor Commissioner Tom Surtees announced today that Alabama’s preliminary March unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.2%. March 2012’s rate was also 7.2%. March’s rate represents 155,071 unemployed persons, compared to 154,790 last month, and 156,224 last year.

In Covington County, the unemployment rate for March was 7.0%, down from 8.3% in February and down slightly from 7.1% a year ago.

“This month we continued to see the labor force grow, which tells us that more people are re-gaining confidence in the job market. We also saw the number of people with jobs grow by nearly 7,000, with only a slight increase in the number of unemployed,” said Surtees. “Even though the rate didn’t decrease, these are still positive signs.”

The civilian labor force increased in March to 2,164,497, up from 2,157,556 in February and 2,156,362 last year.

ANDALUSIA, Ala. – Liberty Mutual Insurance, PowerSouth’s workers’ compensation, auto and general liability insurance provider, has recognized the company for another remarkable year of safety in 2012. PowerSouth as a whole achieved a full calendar year with no lost-time accidents – over 1.2 million hours worked safely by more than 500 employees.

PowerSouth continues to set the bar for safety standards in the electric generation and transmission industry. The company’s overall DART (Days Away/Restricted or Transfer) Rate is currently 0.33.  The rate reflects the number of recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time employees that resulted in days away from work, restricted work activity and/or job transfer in any given timeframe. As such, the company received Liberty Mutual’s Silver Safety Award.

Recent surveillance for rabies in the raccoon population near Columbiana in Shelby County has revealed three positive cases. The current area of focus includes a two-mile radius around the Beeswax Creek boat launch area, where the most recent of the positive raccoons was discovered.

The ongoing surveillance is being conducted by the USDA Wildlife Services (WS) along with the Alabama Department of Public Health. The surveillance began in response to a rabid puppy found in February that was confirmed to be infected with a raccoon variant of the rabies virus.

The primary concern is that these positive cases have been found in an area where raccoon rabies is not typically found. According to Dana Johnson, a USDA WS biologist, the primary focus will be expanding the surveillance areas to try to determine the extent that the rabies virus has spread.