The April unemployment rate for northeast Georgia fell sharply, dropping four-tenths of a point. The Georgia Department of Labor released the numbers today. Commissioner Mark Butler says there were also decreases in the labor force and number of employed residents.
“One of the biggest reasons for that rate decrease has to do with some seasonal issues in manufacturing and support services as we saw a decrease in the number of individuals in the labor force,” according to Butler. “Most of that is going to be is going to be temporary in nature due to some temporary shutdowns. Another indicator is we did see initial claims bump during the month of April almost 15 percent.”
He says the overall picture remains positive.
"The long-term news when it comes to employment for the Northeast Georgia region is very good as we see almost 10-thousand more individuals working this April than we had the same time last year."
The Northeast Georgia region includes Barrow, Clarke, Elbert, Greene, Jackson, Jasper, Madison, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, and Walton counties.
“So that’s very encouraging as we’re seeing individuals be successful in their job hunt as they’re going out looking for those jobs as they’re going out and looking for those jobs because they’re being successful and they’re getting those jobs in Northeast Georgia.”
Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed 2,375 active job postings in metro Northeast region for April.
