Jobless in October
Tennessee * Franklin County, 4.8 percent last month, down 0.4 percent from September * Bradley County, 4.9 percent last moth, down 0.7 percent from September * Hamilton County, 5.1 percent last month, down 0.5 percent from September * Coffee County, 5.1 percent last month, down 0.4 percent from September * Polk County, 6.1 percent, down 0.5 percent from September * Sequatchie County, 6.2 percent last month, down 0.6 percent from September * Marion County, 6.6 percent last month, down 0.2 percent from September * Grundy County, 6.9 percent last month, down 0.4 percent from September * Rhea County, 7.1 percent last month, down 0.4 percent from September * Meigs County, 8.4 percent last month, up 1.1 percent from September Georgia * Catoosa Conty, 5 percent last month, unchanged from September * Dade County, 5.2 percent last month, down 0.3 percent from September * Walker County, 5.7 percent, last month, up 0.2 percent from September * Chattoooga County, 6.0 percent last month, down 0.1 percent from September * Whitfield County, 6.1 percent last month, up 0.3 percent from September * Murray County, 7.1 percent last month, up 0.2 percent from September
Unemployment fell last month in most area counties, but rose in the Dalton area.
The Georgia Department of Labor said today that the jobless rate in metropolitan Dalton increased during October by three tenths of a percentage point to 6.4 percent.
But in metro Chattanooga and metro Cleveland, Tenn., unemployment fell to the lowest levels in more than seven years.
Despite the statewide decline in unemployment across all of Georgia, the jobless rate in the metro Dalton counties of Whitfield and Murray rose due to temporary layoffs at carpet mllls last month. The number of jobs in Dalton decreased by 200, or 0.3 percent, during October to 68,300 jobs.
Dalton's unemployment rate was still down from the 7.7 percent rate of a year ago due to the addition of 1,000 jobs over the past year. Employment grew 1.5 percent in metro Dalton during the past 12 months.
Georgia's seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for October was 5.7 percent, down from 5.8 percent in September. It was 6.8 percent in October 2014.
In the Dalton area, the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance increased by 217, or 23.8 percent, to 1,127 in October. Most of the increase was due to temporary layoffs in manufacturing. Over the year, claims were down by 170, or 13.1 percent, from 1,297 in October 2014.
Metro Gainesville had the lowest area jobless rate at 4.7 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 7.3 percent.
In the Chattanooga region, unemployment was lowest in Franklin County at 4.8 percent and highest in Meigs County at 8.4 percent.