ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday morning that the unemployment rate in the Northeast Georgia region in July was 6.3 percent, up two-tenths of a percentage point from 6.1 percent in June. The rate in July 2014 was 7.8 percent.
Metro Gainesville had the lowest area jobless rate at 5.5 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 8.3 percent.
For the region, the rate rose as the number of new layoffs, as measured by initial claims for unemployment insurance, increased, while the labor force was growing.
The number of initial claims filed in the Northeast Georgia area increased by 186, or 11.8 percent, to 1,766 in July. Most of the increase came in administrative and support services, manufacturing and wholesale trade. Over the year, claims were down by 172, or 8.9 percent, from 1,938 in July 2014.
The labor force increased by 943 in July to 279,212.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for July was 6.0 percent, down from 6.1 percent in June. It was 7.2 percent in July 2014.
