Unemployment in metropolitan Dalton rose last month by four tenths of a percentage point to 5.3 percent – the highest jobless rate among Georgia’s eight metro areas, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.
But Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said today the job market in Dalton is still improving over a year ago, noting that the increase in the November unemployment rate stems primarily from the increase in the workforce and temporary layoffs in the Carpet Capital.
Although unemployment insurance claims increased slightly in Dalton, Butler said “this is a very good jobs report.”
“The number of jobs continues to increase and people are getting those jobs,” he said. “A temporary increase in claims doesn’t change our growing, dynamic economy. The long-term trends are good.”
Since November 2016, employment in metro Dalton has increased by 1,021 jobs, or 1.7 percent, helping to cut the jobless rate in the past 12 months by 0.5 percent from 5.8 percent in November 2016 to 5.3 percent last month. However, the number of employed residents in the Dalton area declined by 94 in November.
Form its peak at 14 percent in March 2009, the jobless rate in Dalton has dropped by nearly two thirds.
Across Georgia, unemployment remained steady last month at 4.3 percent. The jobless rate was lowest in metro Gainesville at 3.6 percent.
In Northwest Georgia, unemployment was lowest in Catoosa County at 3.7 percent and highest in Murray county at 5.3 percent.
See more in tomorrow’s Times Free Press.