Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate fell substantially to 7.3 percent in September from 8.0 percent in August, the state labor department said Thursday.
Atlanta’s jobless rate is significantly lower than Georgia’s 7.9 percent rate, which was the highest among all the states in September. The U.S. rate is 5.9 percent.
There were 19,374 fewer people unemployed in the Atlanta area, partly because employers laid off fewer workers in September.
While the rate declined, however, metro Atlanta lost 4,000 jobs in September, with the total number of jobs dropping to 2,468,600 — a 0.2 percent decrease from August. Much of the job loss came in professional and business services, as well as in leisure and hospitality, as students who worked during the summer returned to school.
But four industry sectors gained jobs during the month: government, education and health services, construction, and trade and transportation.
Over the past year, metro Atlanta gained 51,900 jobs from September 2013, when the unemployment rate was 7.6 percent.
Also, there were 14,232 new claims for unemployment insurance filed in September, a decline of 630, or 4.2 percent, from August. Most of the decrease in claims came in retail trade, accommodations and food services, manufacturing and construction.
Over the past year, unemployment claims were down 14.9 percent from September 2013.
For the core metro Atlanta counties, Gwinnett posted the lowest rate at 6.6 percent. It was followed by Cobb at 6.7 percent, DeKalb (7.7 percent), Fulton (8.2 percent) and Clayton (9.0 percent).
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