Unemployment was down in northeast Georgia for the month of August. State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler says both the unemployment rate and the number of claims fell in August.
The August rate fell to 3.5 percent, down two-tenths from July. That ranked second among the 12 regions in the state. It was also down significantly from this time last year.
“When we take a look at those numbers behind that rate decrease, it was good to see fewer claims for unemployment which actually is a good indicator for fewer layoffs,” according to Butler. “It’s good to see that for Northeast Georgia.”
The rate dropped to 3.5 percent, that’s down two-tenths from July. That ranks second among the 12 regions in the state. It was also down significantly from last year.
“Now we did see some seasonal drops in labor force and employment going from July to August, which we see this same time each year.”
The commissioner said those seasonal numbers were up, the overall trend is still positive for the year.
“However the over-the-year increase in total number of individuals employed in Northeast Georgia is actually very good as we’re showing just under 10,000 more individuals working this August than we had this same time last year. So very good increase.”
Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service www.employgeorgia.com showed 2,871 active job postings in the Northeast Georgia region for August.
The Northeast Georgia region includes Barrow, Clarke, Elbert, Greene, Jackson, Jasper, Madison, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, and Walton counties.