Once again, the Gainesville metro area has the lowest unemployment rate in the state of Georgia, according to the the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL).
State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler announced Thursday that metro Gainesville’s unemployment rate in April was 3.9 percent, down one-tenth of a percentage point from 4 percent in March. In April 2016, the rate was 4.3 percent. The jobless rate for Northeast Georgia declined one-tenth of a point, as well, to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent.
The rate in the Gainesville metro area declined as more people became employed and employers created more jobs.
The number of jobs in Gainesville increased by 400, or 0.5 percent, to 88,900. The job growth came in the service industries such as trade, transportation and warehousing, along with state government.
Over-the-year, a total of 3,300 jobs were added, a 3.9 percent growth rate, up from 85,600, in April 2016. The job growth came mostly in manufacturing, followed by increases in retail trade and state and local government.
The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance, a measure of new layoffs, rose by 120, or 28.4 percent, to 543. Most of the increase came in manufacturing. Over the year, however, claims were down by 125, or 18.7 percent, from 668 in April 2016.
There were 63 more Metro Gainesville residents employed in April than in March, pushing the total number to 94,486. There were 3,774 more people employed in April than in April 2016.
The labor force, which consists of employed residents and those who are unemployed and actively looking for jobs, declined by 32 to 98,284. That total represents an increase of 3,529 over the past 12 months.
Metro Gainesville had the lowest area jobless rate at 3.9 percent, while the Heart of Georgia and River Valley regions had the highest at 5.9 percent.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for April was 5 percent, down from 5.1 percent in March. It was 5.4 percent in April 2016.
Job seekers and employers are encouraged to use GDOL’s online job listing service employgeorgia.com to search for jobs or recruit new employees. In April, 1,266 new job openings in Gainesville were posted on Employ Georgia. Throughout the state, 75,183 new job openings were posted.
