Jobless rate for Georgia in March unchanged from February

ATLANTA — Georgia’s jobless rate for March matched the 6.3 percent it registered in February, the lowest rate the state has seen since mid 2008.

Officials with the Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday that March’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for Georgia was unchanged from February. It was a full percentage point below the 7.3 percent the state posted in March 2014.

“While the rate held steady in March, we have seen considerable improvement since it began a steady decline from November 2010, when it was 10.5 percent,” said State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler. “In fact, the jobless rate has either declined or remained steady every month since then.”

The last time georgia had a rate as low as the ones in February and March was in July 2008, labor officials said.

As the rate remained unchanged, the number of seasonally-adjusted jobs declined by 6,600, or 0.2 percent, to 4,239,500 in March from 4,246,100 in February.

Butler’s office said most of the job losses came in accommodations and food services, 4,000; construction, 3,500, and nondurable manufacturing (including textiles) 2,300. Those losses were offset by gains in health care and social assistance, 2,600; retail trade, 2,200, and finance and insurance, 1,800.

“Despite a small job loss in March, our over-the-year numbers still look very good,” Butler said. “Our employers added 127,100 jobs, which is the strongest March–to-March growth we’ve seen since 2000. That’s a growth rate of 3.1 percent, which is much stronger than the 2.3 percent national growth rate.”

Most of the growth, his office said, came in trade, transportation and warehousing, 33,700; leisure and hospitality, 24,200; education and health services, 20,500; professional and business services, 18,000; manufacturing and government, 7,800 each; financial activities, 7,400; other services, including repair, maintenance and personal services, 3,000, and construction, 2,200.

The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 605, or 2.1 percent, to 29,896 in March from 29,291 in February but a 3 percent improvement over the 30,814 filed in March 2014.

Almost one-third of last month’s claims were from temporary layoffs, primarily in manufacturing and construction, labor officials said. Most of the increase in claims came in health care and social assistance, accommodations and food services, professional, scientific and technical services, and retail trade.

The year-over-year decline came in several industries, including trade, transportation and warehousing, accommodations and food services, health care and social assistance, and manufacturing.