Metro Atlanta’s jobless rate remained at the lowest level in more than six years in December as the region scooped up most of the new jobs generated in the state.
At 6.4 percent, the rate was unchanged from November. But the Georgia Department of Labor said Thursday that metro Atlanta gained 5,500 jobs mostly from seasonal hiring in December, usually a month when the city loses jobs as retailers and other employers shed holiday hires.
The state as a whole gained only 900 jobs in December, the agency reported last week, as several metro areas lost jobs. Unemployment and job numbers are based on separate surveys.
Metro Atlanta’s growth last month was enough to keep the area’s jobless rate at its lowest level since June 2008, when the nation was in the midst of the Great Recession.
But metro Atlanta still hasn’t generated enough work to replace the nearly 251,000 jobs it lost during the recession, when the unemployment rate soared to 10.6 percent in early 2010. The metro area is still about 78,000 jobs short of its December 2007 peak.
Nor has it made Theron Madison, of Stone Mountain, feel good about his prospects for landing a better job.
Thursday, the 22-year-old rode to work on a MARTA train with his courier’s bag and his bicycle. He uses his bike and muscles to deliver sandwiches part-time from a Midtown restaurant, for minimum wage plus tips.
“It’s OK for now but I would like to find something better,” said Madison, who was studying film production at Georgia Perimeter College but had to take break due to short finances.
He hopes to return to school in the fall.
“I’m still looking for a job, but it’s hard,” he said.
That task is getting easier, said Adam Coker, senior vice president at U.S. Trust’s Atlanta office. He believes a number of tailwinds — rising economic growth and consumer confidence, falling fuel prices, low interest costs and a rising number of aging Baby Boomers leaving the work force — favor job hunters.
“We’d probably like to see the pace move a little quicker,” said Coker, “but the trend is certainly positive and moving in the right direction.”
He noted that the jobless rate in Georgia dropped to 6.9 percent in December from 7.4 percent a year earlier.
Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate also has dropped from a year ago, when it was 6.8 percent.
With more than 2.5 million employed in metro Atlanta, the city and surrounding counties account for six out of 10 jobs in Georgia — and a similar share of the 108,200 jobs the state added last year.
Most of metro Atlanta’s job gains over the past year were in trade and logistics, professional jobs and business services, according to the labor department.
— Staff writer Michael E. Kanell contributed to this report.
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