Georgia’s unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent in October from 7.9 percent in September as employers stepped up their hiring, the state labor department said Thursday.
“The rate fell as we had extremely strong job growth in October, which gave us the largest number of jobs in Georgia since May of 2008,” state Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a statement.
There were 4,166,400 jobs in October, an increase of 33,800 from September. The increase came in a variety of industry sectors. Trade, transportation and warehousing added 14,200 new jobs; professional and business services — 7,900; education and health services — 4,900; state and local government education — 3,000; construction — 1,200; leisure and hospitality — 1,100; information services — 1,000; and financial services — 500.
“Georgia employers have added 96,000 jobs since October of last year,” Butler said. “I’m especially encouraged that the number of construction jobs grew by nearly 5 percent to give us the most jobs in that industry in five years.”
Still, the state’s jobless rate has dropped only one-tenth of a percentage point over the past year. Georgia’s unemployment rate continues to significantly trail the national rate, which is currently 5.8 percent.
Also, there were 32,899 new claims filed for unemployment insurance — an indicator of new layoffs — in October. New claims rose 8.9 percent from September. Much of the increase came from temporary layoffs in manufacturing and administrative services, the labor department said.
On the positive side, new claims for unemployment benefits were down 18 percent from October 2013.
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