Metro Albany, Southwest Georgia October jobless rates dip below 8%

ATLANTA — Unemployment numbers dipped below 8 percent both in Metro Albany and the Southwest Georgia region as the state gained 96,000 jobs year over year, Georgia labor officials reported.

Georgia Department of Labor officials said the jobless rate for Metro Albany, comprising Dougherty, Lee, Baker, Terrell and Worth counties, dropped three-tenths of a percentage point, from September’s 8.2 percent to October’s 7.9 percent.

That’s also an improvement year to year. The rate for October 2013 was 8.6 percent.

The Southwest Georgia region also saw its unemployment rate drop to 7.9 percent in October from 8.2 percent in the previous month. Last year for October, the region’s jobless rate was 8.3 percent.

Labor officials said Metro Albany added 600 jobs in October, bringing the total number of jobs in the MSA to 61,600, up 1 percent from September. Most of the job gains came in the service-related industries, including wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, which are the job sectors associated with holiday hiring, labor officials said.

Year-over-year, total job numbers declined 0.3 percent in Metro Albany. October’s numbers showed 200 fewer jobs than the 61,800 the metro area had in October 2013. Labor officials said the job losses came in the areas of trade, transportation and warehousing, the federal government, and the goods-producing sector, which includes manufacturing and construction.

Also, there were 532 new claims for unemployment insurance filed in October in Metro Albany, a decrease of 52, or 8.9 percent, from 584 in September. Most of the decrease in claims came in manufacturing and construction and accommodations and food services. Over the year, claims were down by 338, or 38.9 percent, from 870 filed in October 2013.

For Southwest Georgia, the number of employed residents in the region rose by 860 to 145,724, up from 144,864 in September. There were 1,151 new claims for unemployment insurance filed in October, a decrease of 83, or 6.7 percent, from 1,234 in September. Most of the decrease in claims came in manufacturing, along with real estate, rental and leasing. Over the year, claims were down by 468, or 28.9 percent, from 1,619 filed in October 2013.

Across the state, Metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate at 5.4 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 9.3 percent.

Georgia’s unemployment rate for October, 7.7 percent, was slightly better than September’s rate of 7.9 percent and the state’s jobless rate from a year ago, 7.8 percent. Georgia added 33,800 new jobs over the month and labor officials said the 96,000 jobs that have been added to the state’s rolls since October 2013 ranks fifth nationally and second in the Southeast.

With a jobs growth rate of 2.4 percent, Georgia outpaced the national job-growth rate of 2 percent for the October-to-October period. With just under 4.17 million jobs in the state in October, the year-to-year jump was Georgia’s largest since October 2005.