Jobless claims tick up nationwide; down in Ga.

WASHINGTON - Slightly more people applied for unemployment benefits nationwide last week, but first-time claims remain near their lowest level in two years. And, the number is down more than 18 percent in Georgia for the past 12 months.

The Labor Department says initial claims for jobless aid rose by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 439,000. Wall Street analysts had expected a similar increase, according to Thomson Reuters.

But the four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure, fell for the fourth time in five weeks to 443,000. That is the lowest level since September 2008, just before the financial crisis worsened with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

In Georgia, the state Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of initial unemployment claims filed in October was 57,494, down 18.6 percent since last October. Savannah recorded the smallest decline of metro areas in the state - .2 percent. Rome showed the biggest decrease, 36.8 percent. Metro Gainesville and Atlanta saw their claims drop 17 percent each, while Athens recorded a drop of 22.5 percent.

Also, Thursday, the state Labor Department reported that Georgia's unemploymnet rate remains at 9.9 percent for the second month in a row and that the state added 22,000 jobs over the past month. (See separate story.)

(AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.)