The Georgia Department of Labor announced this week that the unemployment rate in the Three Rivers region in August was 6.5 percent, down five-tenths of a percentage point from 7.0 percent in July. The rate in August 2014 was 8.3 percent.
The rate declined as the number of unemployed residents decreased by 1,483 to 15,161 and the number of new layoffs dropped by 53.7 percent. There were 1,838 initial claims for unemployment insurance, a measure of new layoffs, which are 2,129 fewer than in July. Most of the decrease came in manufacturing, administrative and support services, trade, transportation and warehousing, health care and social assistance, and accommodations and food services. Over the year, claims were up by 222, or 13.7 percent, from 1,616 in August 2014.
Metro Gainesville had the lowest area jobless rate at 4.8 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 7.7 percent.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for August was 5.9 percent, down from 6.0 percent in July. It was 7.1 percent in August 2014.
Local area unemployment data are not seasonally adjusted. Georgia labor market data are available at www.gdol.ga.gov.
