It’s about time. The unemployment rate for Fayette County decreased more than half a percentage point in April. The rate decreased from 8.9 percent in March to 8.3 percent in April.
Pundits from Wall Street to Washington have insisted for months that the recession is over. Correct or not, figures released this week by the Georgia Dept. of Labor showed a significant drop in Fayette’s unemployment rate for April. The March rate of 8.9 percent gave way to an 8.3 percent rate for April.
The April rate for Fayette County equates to 4,234 people jobless in a workforce of 50,979.
Fayette’s unemployment rate in April 2009 was 7.3 percent.
The jobless situation also improved in Peachtree City, though to a lesser degree. The March rate of 7.7 percent came in at 7.4 percent in April. That compares to a 6.4 percent jobless rate a year ago.
Meantime, the unemployment rate for the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission area also saw a decline from 10.2 percent in March to 9.7 percent in April. The April figure represents 205,655 people out of work.
Again this month, Fayette County had the lowest unemployment rate of any of the ARC counties.
The ARC’s unemployment rate in April 2009 was 8.4 percent.
The employment picture also improved next door in Coweta County during April. The 10.8 percent jobless rate in March was replaced by a 10.2 percent figure in April.
And statewide, the 10.4 percent unemployment rate seen in March came in at 9.8 percent in April.
Still above the 8.6 percent jobless rate a year ago, April’s unemployment figures represent 460,777 people out of work.
And across the U.S. the jobless rate for April a decrease from 10.2 percent in March to 9.5 percent in April.
Unemployment figures do not reflect the people that are underemployed, taking part-time jobs in the absence of full-time employment, or those who have given up on finding a job and have stopped looking.
