With the job market moving in several directions at once, metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate dipped from 5.6 percent to 5.5 percent in September, the state labor department said Thursday.
It is the region’s lowest jobless rate since the spring of 2008.
Here’s what is going on:
— Employers shed some workers. The number of jobs dipped by 3,600 from in September, totaling 2,592,100 in the metro area.
— The sectors that added employees included state and local government and manufacturing.
— There were job losses in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and trade, transportation and warehousing.
— Employers laid off fewer people. There was a 4.6 percent drop in first-time claims for unemployment benefits to 12,742.
— Over the past year, the metro area has added about 72,300 jobs. Since the labor force has hardly grown at all, the unemployment rate came down from 6.7 percent in September of last year. But Atlanta’s rate is still higher than the 5.1 percent national average.
Bonus fact so you sound smart at the water cooler: There have been 93 months since 2007. The Atlanta jobless rate has been below the national average in just one of them.
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