ATLANTA - The state labor department released preliminary unemployment numbers for February Thursday morning and the rate for the Georgia Mountains region dropped to 8.1-percent, down one-tenth of a percent from January.
For the Gainesville metro area, the jobless rate held steady at 7.6-percent, according to labor officials. The jobless rate in metro Gainesville in February a year ago was 8.8 percent.
Metro Athens had the lowest area rate at 7.0 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 12.3 percent.
Officials said statewide, the rate went down because the number of jobs in February increased by 15,600 with 70-percent of the growth coming in the private sector. Also, newly revised numbers show the state gained 41,800 jobs in the past 12 months.
The employment sectors showing growth over the year were: professional and business services, 28,000; retail trade, 12,700; education and health care, 8,300; and manufacturing, 4,200.
Local area unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted.
Wednesday
November 27th, 2024
2:48PM
