Jobless Rates in Metro Atlanta, Paulding County Rise in July

Metro Atlanta’s jobless rate climbed another half-percentage point in July, reaching 8.0 percent for the first time in months.

The rate in Paulding County increased as well, but not as sharply. The July rate locally was 7.3, up from 7.1 in June.

The Georgia Department of Labor said the metro Atlanta increase was primarily due to seasonal factors, such as layoffs in educational services and manufacturing.

But the departments also pointed out that most of those workers have now returned to work.

The unemployment rate in July 2013 was 8.3 in metro Atlanta.

There were 2,461,200 jobs in Atlanta in July, down by 2,700, or 0.1 percent, from June. Most of those losses came in local government.

However, the labor department also said private-sector employers created 8,900 jobs in July in the region.

Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July was 7.8 percent, up from 7.4 percent in June.
Metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate at 6.6 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 11.4 percent.
Local area unemployment data are not seasonally adjusted. Georgia labor market data are available at www.gdol.ga.gov