Athens unemployment rate remained unchanged in October. According to the state Department of Labor, Athens’ rate in October rate was 4.1 percent, the same as September. Commissioner Mark Butler says the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“The Athens area actually gained about 500 jobs during the month of October. And going along with that gain as we talk about the long-term job prospects with the Athens area, we’re continuing to see that long-term growth represented by a 4.3 percent increase in jobs over the last year.”
Butler says even with a slight increase in the number of unemployment claims, there are over 4100 more jobs in Athens this year compared to the same time last year.
“The only negative in the jobs report for October in the Athens area, was we did see claims for unemployment increase just slightly and just a little over 11 percent, which basically means in raw numbers is we had about 31 more claims for unemployment this month than we did last month. Overall we had a very good month in the Athens area as see area businesses actually add 500 jobs.”
The number of unemployed residents climbed slightly in Northeast Georgia in October, up to 4.1 percent from 4 percent. Butler encourages both jobs seekers and employers to use the department’s online job listing service, employ.ga.com.
