Unemployment fell to a 12-year low last month in the Dalton, Georgia area as the Carpet Capital added an estimated 532 more jobs over the past year.
The jobless rate in metro Dalton declined by a tenth of a percentage point during May to 3.9% - the lowest unemployment rate for the two-county Dalton metro area since May 2007.
Unemployment also fell in other areas of Northwest Georgia, dropping to 2.9% in Catoosa County and to 3.2% in Walker County.
Preliminary numbers released today by the Georgia Department of Labor show that Dalton made gains in jobs, labor force and employed residents and both for the month and year. Dalton was the only one of the 14 metropolitan statistical areas in Georgia to see its unemployment rate fall last month.
"May was a good month for Georgia," Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a statement today. "Many of our local communities added more individuals to their workforce – which is what we needed to see happen. And, several added jobs and even and set records. That's a great combination."
The jobless rate in Dalton still remained above the U.S. rate of 3.6% last month. And despite the addition of nearly 4,000 jobs over the past decade since the Great Recession of a decade ago, Dalton's employment is still 7,226 jobs behind the peak reached two decades ago when carpet mills were producing more carpets and rugs and more employees were required to staff the mills.
Dalton ended May with 58,860 employed residents. The number climbed by 355 in May and was up by 532 over May 2018's total.
The numbers of unemployment claims fell in May by about 57 percent and were up by about 36 percent from the same period last year.
The two-county Dalton metro area includes Whitfield and Murray counties.
Employ Georgia, the online job listing service operated the Georgia Department of Labor, showed 463 active job postings in metro Dalton for May among more than 93,000 job listings across Georgia.