Gov. Robert Bentley announced the “encouraging news” that the state’s unemployment rate stayed below 7 percent for a second month in January, despite an increase in Alabamians out of work.

The 6.9 percent January figure represents 148,724 people out of work, up from 145,613 in December, when the jobless rate dipped to 6.8 percent. Almost 10,000 fewer were unemployed in January than the same period in 2012, though.