Forsyth's October Jobless Rate One of Lowest in Georgia

Forsyth County's 6.2 percent jobless rate in October 2012 was one of the lowest in Georgia.

That's lower than Clarke County's 6.5 percent or the 6.6 percent jobless rate in Cherokee and Hall counties. Only the city of Alpharetta had a lower jobless rate of 6.1 percent in the metro Atlanta area in October.

Forsyth's jobless rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point from September to October. It's also considerably lower than the 7.1 percent from a year ago. There were 6,482 people unemployed in October 2011, and 5,775 workers unemployed in October 2012.

The Forsyth labor force grew in a year, adding 1,894 workers to create a labor force of 92,712.

The addition of almost 20,000 jobs helped drop metro Atlanta's preliminary unemployment rate to 8.2 percent in October. A year earlier the rate was 9.4 percent.

The Georgia Department of Labor announced today that the preliminary unemployment rate in metro Atlanta was down one-tenth of a percentage point from September because of an increase of 19,500 new jobs in metro Atlanta. There were 2,353,500 jobs in October, up eight-tenths of a percentage point, from 2,334,000 in September.

The growth came in:

• Retail trade: up 5,900;
• Professional, scientific, and technical services: up 2,800;
• education and health care: up 2,600;
• Accommodations and food services: up 2,200;
• Local government: up 2,200;
• Technology: 1,400;
• Construction: 1,200;
• Financial services: 800.

In one year’s time, jobs were up in metro Atlanta by 33,700, or 1.5 percent, from 2,319,800 in October 2011.
Metro Athens continued to have the lowest area jobless rate at 6.2 percent, a drop of two-tenths of a percentage point. You probably won't be moving to Dalton for a job, which had the highest unemployment rate at 11.3 percent.

Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined to 8.7 percent in October, down three-tenths of a percentage point from 9.0 percent in September. The jobless rate was 9.7 percent in October a year ago.
Statewide, 36,000 jobs were added in October, bringing the total to 3,971,700. Over the year, Georgia gained 68,000 jobs, or 1.7 percent, from 3,903,700 in October 2011.

Oconee County had a much lower jobless rate at 5 percent, but with only 19,658 in its labor force, it's difficult to compare it to Forsyth County.
Local area unemployment data are not seasonally adjusted. Georgia labor market data are available at www.dol.state.ga.us.

County Jobless Rates

Bartow          8.5%

Cherokee      6.6

Clarke            6.5

Dekalb           8.8

Forsyth         6.2

Gwinnett      7.3

Hall                6.6

Oconee          5.0