Southern Georgia Posts Mostly Positive Jobs Numbers for April
Friday, June 1st, 2018
Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that unemployment rates fell, claims declined and employed residents climbed in the Southern Georgia region in April.
Those strong numbers bucked a trend across that state that had many jurisdictions posting a down month. The commissioner did note that the regional that the labor force declined for the month. Still, most indicators remain positive for the year.
“Even though we did see some fluctuations in the employment and workforce numbers across the state, job growth continues to be very strong,” Butler said.
In April, the number of employed residents in the Southern Georgia region increased to 172,794.
Southern Georgia gained 486 employed residents for the month and remains up 2,659 over the last year. Only five of Georgia’s 12 regional commissions saw an increase in employed residents.
The Southern Georgia labor force ended April at 179,776. That number is down 385 over the last month but up 1,427 over the last year.
The jobless rate fell to 3.9 percent, a drop of .5 percent over the past month. A year ago, the jobless rate was 4.6 percent. The rates in Georgia’s 12 regions vary from a low of 3.1 percent in the Georgia Mountains to 4.7 percent in the River Valley region.
In the Southern Georgia region, initial claims for unemployment were down about 20 percent for the month and remain unchanged for the year.
The Southern Georgia Regional Commission includes Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Pierce, Tift, Turner, and Ware counties.