Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate stays the same at 6.4 percent

Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.4 percent in December, as employers hired and laid off more workers than they did in November, the state labor department said Thursday.

The number of jobs in December increased by 5,500 to reach a total of 2,514,000 in the metro area. Holiday hiring in retail, warehousing and transportation accounted for most of the increase.

Over the past year, metro Atlanta gained 64,700 jobs, which was the largest December-to-December increase since 2006. That helped drive down the unemployment rate from 6.8 percent in December 2013.

Most of the annual job growth came in trade, transportation and warehousing — 22,500 new jobs; professional and business services — 15,700; leisure and hospitality — 8,900; financial services — 5,100; manufacturing — 3,300; education and health services — 3,200; government — 3,000; construction — 1,900; and information services — 1,400.

On the negative side, workers filed 21,266 new claims for unemployment insurance in December — an increase of 7,810, or 58 percent, from November. Most of the increase was because of seasonal layoffs in administrative and support services, accommodations and food services, and manufacturing and construction, the labor department said. The metro jobless numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

During the past year, however, unemployment claims were down by 2,227, or 9.5 percent, from December 2013.

For the core metro Atlanta counties, Gwinnett had the lowest jobless rate at 5.7 percent. Cobb was next with 5.9 percent, followed by DeKalb (6.7 percent), Fulton (7.3 percent) and Clayton (7.9 percent).

Last week, the labor department reported that Georgia’s unemployment rate was 6.9 percent in December. Both the state and metro Atlanta continue to have higher rates than the national average, which was 5.6 percent.