Wyoming’s unemployment rate increased slightly to 5.7 percent in August.

The state Department of Workforce Services says the August rate increased from July’s 5.6 percent but is not a statistically significant change.

However, it was the third consecutive month that the jobless rate has gone up in Wyoming.

Still, the rate is lower than it was a year ago and remains below the U.S. rate of 8.1 percent.

For the month of August, Fremont County posted the highest unemployment rate in the state at 6.6 percent, followed by Lincoln County at 6.4 percent, Big Horn at 6.1 percent and Laramie at 5.9 percent.

Sublette County had the lowest rate at 3.5 percent, followed by Teton at 4.1 percent, and Niobrara and Converse counties both at 4.2 percent.

Now unemployment rates fell in nearly 90 percent of large U.S. metro areas in August, including Cheyenne, mainly because more people gave up looking for work. The Labor Department said yesterday that unemployment rates dropped in 329 large cities, the most in four months.

In Cheyenne, it dipped to 5.9 percent from 6.1 percent in July. The rate held steady at 4.9 percent in Casper.