Metro Atlanta’s new jobless rate - 7.0 percent for October - follows a familiar good news, bad news script.
The 28-county region's unemployment rate, released Thursday morning, is down from 7.3 the previous month and 7.6 this time last year. The metro area added 18,800 jobs during the month, according to the state Labor Department.
Metro Atlanta's rate is considerably lower than the state average of 7.7 percent, released previously. While that seems like more good news, it shows that the rest of Georgia is suffering. Numerous rural counties are still in double digits.
And the metro jobless rate far exceeds the national rate of 5.8 percent.
The city of Atlanta’s rate declined slightly but is still an alarming 9.2 percent, according to the Labor Department. Suburban counties Cobb and Gwinnett registered rates in the mid-6s.
