Bartow Jobless Rate Jumps To 8.4 Percent

The unemployment rate in Bartow County inched higher in July, according to preliminary figures released by the Georgia Department of Labor.

The county’s jobless rate last month stood at 8.4 percent, an increase from 7.6 percent in June. It’s still lower than the July 2013 rate of 8.9 percent, however.

The county’s rate climbed along with the metro Atlanta jobless rate. The metro rate rose another half-percentage point in July, reaching 8.0 percent for the first time in months.

The Georgia Department of Labor said the increase was primarily due to seasonal factors, such as layoffs in educational services and manufacturing.

But the department also pointed out that most of those workers have now returned to work.

The unemployment rate in July 2013 was 8.3 in metro Atlanta.

There were 2,461,200 jobs in Atlanta in July, down by 2,700, or 0.1 percent, from June. Most of those losses came in local government.

However, the labor department also said private-sector employers created 8,900 jobs in July in the region.

Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July was 7.8 percent, up from 7.4 percent in June.
Metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate at 6.6 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 11.4 percent.

Local area unemployment data are not seasonally adjusted. Georgia labor market data are available at www.gdol.ga.gov.

(Photo credit: Patch file)