Archive for September, 2011

Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate rose to 10.4 percent in August from 10.3 percent in July, the state labor department said Thursday.

There has been no improvement from a year ago when the local jobless rate was also 10.4 percent.

The rate increased this August because there were more layoffs in construction, trade, administrative and support services, and accommodation and food services, the labor department said.

Clayton had the highest jobless rate among the core metro counties — 13 percent. Fulton was next with 11 percent, followed by DeKalb (10.8 percent), Cobb (9.6 percent) and Gwinnett (9.3 percent).

The city of Atlanta’s jobless rate hit 11.7 percent in August, up from a revised 11.5 percent in July.

Last week, the labor department reported that Georgia’s jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent in August from 10.1 percent in July.

August marked the 49th consecutive month Georgia has exceeded the national unemployment rate, which is currently 9.1 percent.

– Henry Unger, The …

Continue reading Metro Atlanta’s jobless rate rises to 10.4 percent in August »

Georgia’s unemployment rate hit its highest level in six months, rising to 10.2 percent in August from 10.1 percent in July, the state labor department said Thursday.

There has been no improvement from a year ago, when the state’s jobless rate was also 10.2 percent.

August marked the 49th consecutive month Georgia has exceeded the national unemployment rate, which is currently 9.1 percent, the labor department said.

The August unemployment rate increased because 5,500 new job seekers — as well as more of those already unemployed — were unable to find work.

The number of long-term unemployed — those jobless for at least 27 weeks — increased by 3,000 to 254,100. There were 15.5 percent more long-term unemployed than in August of last year. The long-term unemployed account for 52.7 percent of Georgia’s 482,321 jobless workers.

On the positive side, the number of jobs in Georgia increased 0.2 percent to 3,801,000 in August, the labor department said. Most of the gain came from …

Continue reading Georgia jobless rate hits highest level in 6 months »