Metro Atlanta’s jobless rate declines to 8.7 percent in March

The Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday that the preliminary unemployment rate in metro Atlanta declined to 8.7 percent in March, down three-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 9 percent in February. The jobless rate in metro Atlanta in March 2011 was 9.6 percent.

The rate decreased because there were fewer layoffs in construction, manufacturing, trade and administrative and support services according to the state labor department.

Among the core metro counties, Gwinnett had the lowest jobless rate at 7.8 percent last month, followed by Cobb (8.1 percent), DeKalb (9.1 percent), Fulton (9.4 percent) and Clayton (10.7 percent).

The city of Atlanta had a March unemployment rate of 10.8 percent, which is down from 11.3 percent in February and 11.8 percent a year ago.

Metro Athens had the lowest area rate at 6.7 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 11.6 percent.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined in March for the eighth consecutive month to 9 percent, the lowest rate since February 2009, when it was 8.9 percent. That is a decline of one-tenth of a percentage point from a revised 9.1 percent in February. The jobless rate was 9.8 percent in March a year ago.

The state and metro Atlanta rates remain a tad higher than the current national jobless rate of 8.2 percent. Statewide, the rate went down because the number of jobs in March increased by 13,900 to 3,894,900. Also, revised numbers show the state gained 35,600 jobs in the past 12 months.

According to the state labor department, the employment sectors showing growth since March of 2011 were: professional and business services, 28,900; trade and transportation, 10,700; education and health services, 7,900; manufacturing, 5,900; and leisure and hospitality, 1,200.

Local area unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted. Georgia labor market data are available here.