Albert Lea’s unemployment rate reached a five-year low in May.

The jobless rate was 5.2 percent, the lowest it has been since November 2007, according to data released this week by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

It was also a decrease from April’s rate of 5.6 percent and more than a full percentage point lower than the rate in May 2012, when the jobless rate was 6.3 percent. All rates are not seasonally-adjusted.

Dan Dorman, executive director of the Albert Lea Economic Development Agency, said both the size of the labor force and the number of jobs locally have increased during the last year, which follows trends on the state level.

According to the data, there were 497 people looking for work in Albert Lea in May out of a labor force of 9,501.

In Freeborn County, the jobless rate was 4.9 percent, which is also the lowest since November 2007. In Rochester it was 4.3 percent, in Owatonna it was 4.9 percent, in Austin it was 4.5 and in Winona it was 5.4.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Minnesota for May was 5.3 percent, the same as it was in April. Minnesota continued its long streak of outperforming the national jobless rate, which in May was 7.6 percent. The state’s rate has been below 6 percent since November 2011.