Heart of Georgia-Altamaha’s unemployment rate rises to 6.9 percent in January
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Labor announced today that the unemployment rate in the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region in January was 6.9 percent, up four-tenths of a percentage point from 6.5 percent in December. The rate in January 2015 was 8.3 percent.
The rate rose as the number of unemployed workers increased by 541 to 8,072. .
However, the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits declined 130, or 5.8 percent, to 2,126 in January. Most of the decrease came in administrative and support services and health care and social assistance. Also, over the year, claims were down by 879, or 29.3 percent, from 3,005 in January 2015.
Metro Gainesville had the lowest area jobless rate at 4.5 percent, while Metro Dalton had the highest at 7.2 percent.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for January was 5.4 percent, down from 5.5 percent in December. It was 6.3 percent in January 2015.
Local area unemployment data are not seasonally adjusted. Georgia labor market data are available at www.dol.georgia.gov.
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