Jobs report tileUnemployment in Georgia was unchanged in April for the third consecutive month and remained above the U.S. average despite the biggest job gains over the past year in 16 years.
The Georgia Department of Labor said today that the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 6.3 percent, which is unchanged from March. The rate was 7.3 percent a year ago.
Nationwide, unemployment averaged 5.4 percent in April.
"While our unemployment rate for April held steady for the third straight month, our employers continue to create new jobs and lay off fewer workers," Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler. "The stable rate continues the 54-month trend in which we've seen our rate either remain unchanged or go down."
The number of seasonally adjusted jobs grew by 0.2 percent, or 7,400 jobs, to more than 4.2 million. Over the past year, Georgia employers added121,900 jobs - the biggest gain since the late 1990s.
Most of the job gains last month came in professional and business services, 4,100; arts entertainment and recreation, 3,200; local government, including the public schools, 1,600; construction, 1,100; health care and social assistance, 800; and nondurable manufacturing, including textiles and food processing, also 800.
The job gains were offset somewhat by losses in wholesale trade, 1,600; other services, including personal, laundry, repair and maintenance, 1,200; financial activities, which includes insurance, real estate, rental and leasing, 1,100; and state government, 800.
"We did very well over the year, as we saw the largest April-to-April job growth we've seen in 16 years," said Butler. "And, our rate of growth at 3.0 percent is significantly higher than the national growth rate of 2.2 percent."