Georgia unemployment rate remains steady from March to April

ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday that the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 6.3 percent, unchanged from March.

The rate was 7.3 percent a year ago. The number of seasonally adjusted jobs grew by 7,400 to 4.25 million in April, up by .2 percent, from March. The state has averaged an increase of 7,400 jobs from March to April for the past three years, officials from the Labor Department said.

The latest data available from the Labor Department on the metro areas of the state showed that the Albany area, as well as the Macon area, was unchanged in its number of jobs from April 2014 to April of this year. The Gainesville area, at a 4.9 increase, had the largest percentage gain while Warner Robins was the only one to suffer a loss in that time frame with a decrease of 1.3 percent.

Most of the statewide job gains came in professional and business services, arts entertainment and recreation, local government, construction, health care and social assistance and non durable manufacturing. The job gains were offset somewhat by losses in wholesale trade, personal, laundry and maintenance services, financial activities and state government.

Over the year, 121,900 jobs were added, as all employment sectors grew — with four of them exceeding 3 percent. Those were trade, transportation and warehousing, leisure and hospitality, professional and business services and education and health services.

Additional job growth came in manufacturing, state and local government, financial activities, construction, information services and other services, labor officials said.

The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance in April hit the lowest level since June 2000. There were 2,157 initial claims for unemployment insurance in April, a 7.2 percent decrease from March. One-quarter of the claims filed in April were temporary. The decline came as employers laid off fewer workers, primarily in textile manufacturing, food processing and construction.

Overall, claims were down to 27,739 from 29,896 in March.

Labor Department Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that last month was the 54th consecutive one in which Georgia has seen a jobless rate that has either remained unchanged or has decreased from the previous month.

Over the year, claims were down 17.3 percent from 33,561 in April 2014, a decline of 5,822. The decline came mostly in manufacturing, administrative and support services, trade, transportation and warehousing and accommodations and food services.

Data available Thursday on initial claims by metro area showed that Albany had the highest percentage drop over the year with a 55.2 percent decrease. Three metro areas has an increase of initial claims, with Rome having the highest percentage jump at 56.5 percent.

Of the total number of 298,643 unemployed Georgians last month, 41.2 percent had been without work for 27 weeks or longer. At the same time last year, 43.5 of the state’s unemployed had been jobless for that long, labor officials said.

Labor officials say job seekers should utilize EmployGeorgia, the state Labor Department’s new online recruiting service. Visit www.employgeorgia.com to search for jobs or obtain more information.