Woodstock Sees Drop in Unemployment Rate

The city of Woodstock witnessed a dip in its unemployment rate last month.

According to the Georgia Department of Labor, the city’s preliminary rate for November was at 6.4 percent, which is down from October’s adjusted rate of 7 percent. The city’s rate in November 2013 was also reported at 7 percent.

Cherokee County also saw its preliminary unemployment rate fall last month. The rate dropped to 5.3 percent in November. That’s a four-tenths of a percent drop from October’s adjusted rate of 5.7 percent. Cherokee’s unemployment rate in November 2013 stood at 5.8 percent.

Surrounding cities also saw their unemployment rates fall: Alpharetta from 5.4 to 5 percent; Kennesaw from 7.8 to 7.7 percent; Marietta from 7.4 to 7 percent; Milton from 5.8 to 5.2 percent; Roswell from 5.3 to 4.8 percent; Smyrna from 6.8 to 6.4 percent.

Metro Atlanta also saw a drop in its preliminary unemployment rate. GDOL says the area’s unemployment rate for November was 6.5 percent, down five-tenths of a percentage point from 7 percent in October. The rate in November of last year was also 7 percent.

The metro area added 17,800 new jobs in November, pushing the total to 2.5 million, up 0.7 percent, from 2.4 million in October.

GDOL notes most of the growth came in the trade, transportation and warehousing industries, which gained 13,800 jobs, primarily because of holiday hiring. Other increases came in education and health services and government at 1,300 each; financial services at 1,200; manufacturing at 600; information services at 500; other services at 800, and leisure and hospitality.

And, there was an over-the-year gain of 59,600 jobs, or 2.4 percent, from 2.4 million in November 2013.

GDOL says this was the largest November-to-November growth since 2006, when there were 66,200 jobs created. Most of the job growth came in trade, transportation and warehousing at 24,200; professional and business services at 13,300; leisure and hospitality at 7,100; financial services at 5,700; manufacturing at 3,300; construction at 2,900; education and health services at 2,300; local government at 1,500; and information services at 700.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for November was 7.2 percent, down from a revised 7.6 percent in October. The decrease was the largest over-the-month drop on record.

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