Columbus metro area unemployment rate surges higher in January

The Columbus metro area unemployment jumped from 6.3 percent in December to 7 percent in January, the Georgia Department of Labor reported Thursday.

The rate was 6.8 percent a year ago and compares to an overall January 2017 rate of 5.5 percent for Georgia.

The department said the number of jobs in the Columbus area dropped by 2,000 from December to January, giving the area a total of 120,300 positions. It attributed the jobs decline and smaller labor force, along with new layoffs, to the “normal seasonal fluctuations in January.”

Job losses came in the sectors of professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, retail trade, and education and health services.

First-time claims for unemployment benefits, an indication of new layoffs, climbed by 733 to 1,845 month over month.

Among Georgia’s metro areas, Gainesville, just northeast of Atlanta, had the lowest January jobless rate at 4.8 percent. The highest was in the carpet manufacturing community of Dalton in northwest Georgia at 7.1 percent.

The labor department will release the state’s February unemployment rate next week.

Here are the January 2017 unemployment rates for Georgia’s metro areas:

▪ Gainesville — 4.8 percent

▪ Athens — 5.2 percent

▪ Savannah — 5.2 percent

▪ Atlanta — 5.3 percent

▪ Valdosta — 5.5 percent

▪ Brunswick — 5.8 percent

▪ Augusta — 5.9 percent

▪ Warner Robins — 6 percent

▪ Macon — 6.2 percent

▪ Hinesville — 6.3 percent

▪ Albany — 6.4 percent

▪ Rome — 6.5 percent

▪ Columbus — 7 percent

▪ Dalton — 7.1 percent

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Columbus metro area unemployment rate surges higher in January."