Jobless Rate Up Again in Douglas County

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.

Local unemployment rates were up, too.

The August jobless rate in Douglas County was 8.3 percent, up from July’s 8.2, and the same as the rate last August, also 8.3. The number of employed workers in Douglas fell from 62,914 in July to 62,052 in August, according to the labor department.

In Douglasville, the rate fell one-tenth of a point, but it was still 9.6 percent. The number of employed in the city fell from 13,707 to 13,519.

Despite the rate increase, the number of jobs in Metro Atlanta (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