Georgia’s unemployment rate has risen to 10.3 percent, the highest level since January, state officials said.
The Georgia Department of Labor said Thursday the seasonally adjusted jobless rate for September was up one-tenth of a percentage point from 10.2 percent the previous month.
Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a statement that the number of jobs in Georgia decreased by 15,100 since August. He said most of the losses were among seasonal workers in the leisure and hospitality industries.
Butler said there are some positive signs in this month’s report. “One positive is fewer layoffs, which results in a smaller quantity of initial unemployment claims,” he said.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance benefits in September decreased to 51,267, down 5,209, or 9.2 percent, from 56,476 in August. More than half the decline was in metro Atlanta, and the number in Savannah decreased by more than 400.
There were seasonal job gains in state and local public schools, as well as manufacturing and professional and business services but those gains were not enough to offset the losses, Butler said.
The number of long-term unemployed, those who have been jobless for 27 weeks or more, rose to nearly 257,000 in September, an increase of nearly 3,000 from August.