Georgia’s unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent in January — its lowest level since July 2008 — from 6.6 percent in December, the state labor department said Thursday.
Employers laid off fewer workers, which helped bring down the jobless rate for the seventh consecutive month, the labor department said.
Also, several business sectors — excluding those involved in temporary holiday hiring late last year — added to their payrolls in larger numbers than in previous years.
“While we lost … seasonal jobs in January, as we often do, we had the strongest January-to-January growth we’ve had in 20 years,” state labor commissioner Mark Butler said in a statement. “Six of our job sectors grew at least 3 percent.”
Over the past year, the state gained 131,900 jobs, which helped push down the unemployment rate from 7.3 percent in January 2014.
Most of the gains came in trade, transportation and warehousing — 33,500 new jobs; professional and business services — 24,900; leisure and hospitality — 22,300; education and health services — 17,600; manufacturing — 13,100; and financial activities — 7,000.
Still, the number jobs in January declined 0.1 percent from December to total 4,222,100.
Much of the loss from December to January was related to temporary holiday jobs. For example, administrative and support services — including temporary employment agencies — lost 5,000 jobs, and retail, transportation and warehousing cut 2,800.
The state continues to trail the nation, which had a 5.7 percent unemployment rate in January.
Layoffs in Georgia — represented by new claims for unemployment insurance — dropped 0.5 percent from December to January, and fell 1.5 percent from a year ago.
