blog.al.com — MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Alabama's preliminary May unemployment rate is 7.4 percent, up from 7.2 percent in April, Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees announced. [Here is the county-by-county May 2012 Alabama unemployment rate] May's rate represents 159,218 unemployed, compared to 154,012 last month, and 203,806 in May 2011.