Job growth slows, but county's unemployment rate falls

Job growth

slows, but county's unemployment rate falls

State Labor Commissioner

Michael Thurmond said this week that the rate of annualized job growth

in the metro Atlanta area slowed to 1.8 percent in April, down from 4.9

percent when compared with the same period a year ago.

Despite the

bad news on the job growth front, Fayette's economy appears to be doing

better than that of some of its neighbors.

The unemployment

rate for Fayette dropped from 2 percent in March to 1.8 percent in April.

Metro Atlanta

added 39,600 new jobs from April 2000 to April 2001, down from 103,000

from April 1999 to April 2000.

Meanwhile,

the annualized rate of job growth in the state slowed to 2.1 percent in

April, down from 3.8 percent when compared with the same period a year

ago. Georgia added 81,800 new jobs from April 2000 to April 2001, down

from 145,600 from April 1999 to April 2000. "This is further evidence

that our state's economy continues to cool," Thurmond said. "Layoffs

are spreading across the economy in several job sectors, such as technology,

manufacturing and retail trade."

While metro

Atlanta's April unemployment rate has risen to 2.9 percent in the past

year, up from 2.8 in April 2000, it was down from 3.1 percent in March.

Labor Department

officials said the slight one-month drop in Atlanta was due to increased

employment among retail trade and service industry workers, plus there

were fewer new job seekers entering the labor market. The unemployment

rate tracks only individuals who are unemployed but actively seeking employment.

The state's

unemployment rate has averaged 3.7 percent for the past 12 months, including

March. It declined slightly to 3.5 percent in April, the same as April

2000.

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