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Unemployment in metropolitan Dalton, Ga., declined for a second consecutive month in May, the Georgia Department of Labor reported Thursday.

But the Carpet Capital still had Georgia’s highest jobless rate among the state’s biggest cities last month, and unemployment remained in double-digit levels across most of Northwest Georgia.

“The larger carpet mills are bringing back some workers, so we’ll take whatever good news we can get,” Dalton Mayor David Pennington said. “We haven’t seen a lot of rays of sunlight in our economy, and it’s probably going to be a rough period for a while longer.”

The May jobless rate of 12.4 percent for metro Dalton was down from the March peak of 13.6 percent. But last month’s figures don’t include the recent closing of the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant, which laid off nearly 300 workers earlier this month.

Over the past year, employment in Northwest Georgia is down by more than 10,000 jobs, with unemployment at double-digit rates in four of the five counties in Northwest Georgia. The jobless rate last month was lowest in Catoosa County at 8.5 percent, but that rate was still up 0.4 percent from the previous month.

Unemployment rose in May to the highest rates in the region — 13.2 percent — in both Chattooga and Murray counties.

Unemployment across all of Georgia is now the highest since World War II. Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said the 9.7 percent statewide rate in May “is a stark reminder that the road to economic recovery will be long and difficult.”

Northwest Georgia, where most of America’s carpet is produced, has been hit harder than most areas because of the prolonged slump in housing and other construction. In metro Atlanta, for instance, the number of new home permits is expected to be only about 500 this year, down from the peak of 6,500 new homes three years ago.

Many workers are having to change careers.

Karen Back, 47, is going back to school at Virginia College to become a medical assistant. The poor economy forced her to close her own auto glass company two years ago, and then she lost her job at an East Ridge retail shop.

“This is the worst job market I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I’m starting over, and hopefully the job market will be much better in the medical field.”

Deborah Jones, 55, lost her last full-time job last summer when the Rexam plastic bottle-making plant shut down in Chattanooga. Since then, she has had to take part-time catering jobs and plans to go back to school this August to learn computer skills at Chattanooga State Community College.

“Because I don’t have a college education, the job market is very, very difficult,” she said while looking for work Thursday at the Career Center in Chattanooga.