Jobless Rate Up Again in Gwinnett, Metro Atlanta

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.

Gwinnett County’s jobless rate also jumped slightly from 7.1 in July to August’s preliminary rate of 7.2. The rate last year was 7.0.

The number of employed workers in Gwinnett fell from 414,927 in July to 409,247 in August, according to the labor department.

Still,Gwinnett’s rate of 7.2 was the lowest in the core metro counties of Gwinnett, Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb.

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