Jobless Rate Up in Metro, Down in Paulding

Unemployment in metro Atlanta reached 8.0 percent in August, the Georgia Department of Labor said Thursday.

That’s up one-tenth of a percent from July’s rate of 7.9, and slightly above the August 2013 rate, also 7.9.

But while rates were up in most places in Georgia in August, Paulding County saw a small decrease.

The Paulding jobless rate fell from 7.3 in July to 7.2 last month. The rate in Aug. 2013 was also 7.2.

The number of unemployed workers fell from 5,335 to 5,205 month-to-month. The county’s labor force fell from 73,127 in July to 72,069 in July.

The August jobless rate in Douglas County was 8.3 percent, up from July’s

Despite the rate increase in metro Atlanta, the number of jobs (2,470,600) increased 0.2 percent from July, while the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped 22.9 percent, the labor department said. Most of the job gains came in state and local government, and private education and health services.

Metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate at 6.4 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 10.7 percent.
Georgia’s unemployment rate for August was 8.1 percent, up from a revised 7.7 percent in July. It was 8.2 percent in August 2013.
Note: Local area unemployment data are not seasonally adjusted. Georgia labor market data are available at www.gdol.ga.gov