Georgia jobless rate dips to 4.7 percent; Columbus creates 300 jobs

It’s six months in a row for Georgia’s unemployment rate.

That’s the number of months that the state’s jobless figure has declined, with it dipping from 4.8 percent in June to 4.7 percent in July, the Georgia Department of Labor reported Thursday. A year ago in July, the rate was 5.3 percent.

“Our rate continues to decline as more Georgians go back to work,” Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a statement. “It’s great to see our economy growing. Since July 2016, we’ve gained 96,200 jobs, a 2.2 percent growth rate. We are outpacing national growth. In fact, the federal growth rate was only 1.5 percent.”

Data released Thursday for Georgia’s metropolitan areas show Columbus adding 300 jobs over the past year, giving it 120,500 in July. However, that’s the worst performance of Georgia’s metro areas in terms of percentage increase. It’s the second-worst in total jobs created, only ahead of the 200 generated in Brunswick.

Aside from the 85,300 jobs created by the juggernaut called Atlanta, the metro areas seeing the highest number of new jobs are Augusta with 6,400, Savannah with 4,300, Gainesville with 3,300 and Athens with 2,600. Macon added 1,000 jobs, while Albany and Warner Robins picked up 1,100 each.

Year over year, the Peach State’s job gains have been dominated by professional and business services, with 29,800 positions created in that sector, and 23,300 in leisure and hospitality. Also strong have been trade, transportation and warehousing (15,100 jobs), education and health services (14,100) and financial activities (8,000). Other sectors and their job gains since last year are government (5,100); other services (3,000); information services (1,400); and mining and logging (1,100).

However, there were year-over-year job losses in manufacturing (3,000) and construction (1,700).

From June to July, Georgia actually lost 14,100 jobs, with the total number of jobs across the state now at 4,479,800, the department said. That goes against a three-year trend of average June-to-July job increases of 10,600.

“In June, we more than doubled our jobs,” Butler said “Due to the fact that a lot of summer jobs are held by students, it’s not surprising to see the July decline in jobs, especially with the earlier school start dates this year.”

Initial, or first-time, unemployment claims in Georgia rose by by 2,787, or 10.9 percent, month over month to 28,425. Over the past year, however, jobless claims are down by 7,214, or 20.2 percent, from 35,639 in July 2016.

Unemployment rates for Georgia’s metro areas will be released next week. The rate for Columbus in June was 6 percent, up from 5.5 percent in May.

This story was originally published August 17, 2017 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Georgia jobless rate dips to 4.7 percent; Columbus creates 300 jobs."