State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said that 2017 was a banner year for job creation and employment in metro Valdosta.

The four-county metropolitan statistical area, which includes Brooks, Echols, Lanier and Lowndes counties, ended the year with 600 new jobs, almost 1,500 more employed residents, and nearly 1,000 more people in the workforce. The unemployment rate dropped .9 percent. Valdosta ranked seventh in Georgia for job creation among 14 MSAs tracked by the Georgia Department of Labor.

“This is a very good year for the Valdosta area,” Butler said. “All of the major indicators trended in the right direction. I’m expecting the same will continue in 2018.”

While metro Valdosta lost 600 jobs in December, the area added 600 new jobs over the past 12 months to end the year with 57,200. Most of the job growth came in the service industries and the goods-producing sector, which includes manufacturing and construction.

While the number of employed residents in metro Valdosta declined by 458 in December, the metro area posted 62,504 employed residents at year’s end, an increase of 1,454 in 2017.

Metro Valdosta’s labor force, the number of residents with jobs and those unemployed but actively looking for work, declined by 497 in December. Still Valdosta netted 950 new members of the labor force over 2017, ending the year with 65,247.

In December, 340 initial claims for unemployment insurance were filed, up by 45 percent from the previous month. Since Jan. 1, 2017 initial claims are up by .9 percent from 337. Most of the increase in claims came in retail trade and construction.

Meanwhile, the metro area’s unemployment rate fell from 5.1 percent to 4.2 over the 12-month cycle. The December rate, at 4.2 percent, was unchanged from the previous month.