Hall jobless rate up slightly

ATLANTA - The jobless rate in Hall County is up slightly - to 3.6 percent - from 3.4 a month ago.

"The reason for this this slight increase is that there's some people who work in several types of manufacturing along with some others in retail and service industries who have been temporarily laid off," said Sam Hall, Director of Communications for the Georgia Department of Labor.

The rates are also up in Habersham, Jackson, and Barrow counties, but unchanged in Lumpkin. They are down in White, Forsyth, Dawson, and Banks counties.

For the 13-county Georgia Mountains region, the unemployment rate is 3.8 percent, compared to 3.7 a month ago.

The state jobless rate remained unchanged at 4.6 percent, but Georgia lost 25,900 non-farm jobs in the first quarter of the year. The number of jobs in the state fell from 3,927,700 at the first of the year to 3,901,800 in March.

"While some job opportunities are available, the fact remains that employers are not hiring in significant numbers," according to State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. "What is needed now are job creation incentives that will encourage increased hiring and move us more quickly toward a sustainable economic recovery.

Thurmond said there were 2,100 fewer jobs in March than there were in March a year ago, further illustrating, he said, the weakness of Georgia's current job market.