Roswell's Unemployment Rate Goes Up One-Tenth of a Point During January

According to the Georgia Department of Labor's newest figures, released today, March 15, Roswell's unemployment rate rose one-tenth of a point from 6.6 percent in December to 6.7 percent in January.

Regardless, the city still has one of the lowest rates in Georgia for cities with over 50,000 residents, behind Alpharetta's January figure of 6.7 percent. The preliminary unemployment rate in metro Atlanta rose to 9.2 percent in January, up three-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 8.9 percent in December, which is still down from the 10.3 percent it was in January 2011.

The rate increased because there were layoffs in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, transportation, warehousing, and administrative and support services.

Metro Athens had the lowest area rate at 7.1 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 12.7 percent.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined for the sixth month in a row to 9.2 percent in January, the lowest rate since March of 2009 when it was 9.1 percent. That is a decline of two-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 9.4 percent in December. The jobless rate was 10.1 percent in January a year ago.

Statewide, the rate went down because about 13,000 more Georgians were employed in January than in December. Also, newly revised numbers show that Georgia gained 83,700 jobs in the last 12 months. This is the largest January to January job growth since 2006.

Among the sectors showing growth over the year, professional and businesses services gained 37,000 jobs, retail trade gained 15,100, health care and social assistance grew by 11,100, and manufacturing gained 7,300.