Woodstock Sees Jump in August Jobless Rate

The number of unemployed people in the city of Woodstock rose last month.

That’s according to preliminary figures released on Thursday by the Georgia Department of Labor, which show the city’s jobless rate rose from 7.8 percent in July to 8.2 percent in August.

Last month’s figure is more than one percentage point higher than the 7.1 percent jobless rate for August 2013.

For its part, Cherokee County’s rate remained at 6.6 percent from July to August, which is slightly higher than the 6.3 percent unemployment rate for August 2013.

Comparatively, the preliminary August unemployment rates for surrounding cities varied, with Kennesaw at 8.3 percent; Marietta at 8.2 percent; Alpharetta at 6.3 percent, Milton at 6.5 percent; Roswell at 6.2 percent and Sandy Springs at 6.5 percent.

The metro Atlanta region as a whole saw a slight bump in its unemployment rate. GDOL announced the rate in August for the area was 8 percent, a slight increase from 7.9 percent in July and 7.9 percent in August 2013.

Despite the rate increase, the number of jobs in metro Atlanta increased by 5,900 to 2,470,600 from 2,464,700 in July, while the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped 22.9 percent from July, GDOL states.

The monthly job gains were in state and local government, 6,900; private education and health services, 4,000; manufacturing, 500; and construction and other services, 400 each.

GDOL also indicates there was a strong over-the-year job growth of 51,400 jobs, or 2.1 percent, from 2,419,200 in August 2013, which it said was the second largest August-to-August growth since 2007.

The primary growth was in professional and business services, 17,600; trade, transportation and warehousing, 11,300; leisure and hospitality, 8,500; manufacturing, 4,900; construction, 3,800; financial services, 3,600; information services, 2,000; and private education and health services, 1,300.

Government jobs remained unchanged over the year at 311,700.

Figures from GDOL also show there were 14,862 new claims for unemployment insurance filed in August, a decrease of 4,409, from 19,271 in July. Most of the decrease in claims came in manufacturing and administrative services. Over the year, claims were down 15.4 percent from the 17,563 claims filed in August 2013.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for August was 8.1 percent, up from 7.7 percent in July. It was 8.2 percent in August 2013.

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