Roswell's Unemployment Rate Increases to 6.5%

Roswell's unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent in February, rising by two-tenths of a percent in a month.

Don't tell Alpharetta, but after the jobless figures were revised for January, it turns out Roswell had the lowest unemployment rate for January at 6.3 percent. But the city had to share that rate with Sandy Springs, which also had a lower figure after the revisions by the Georgia Department of Labor released today.

Roswell had 95 more people out of work in February than in January. But the workforce also dropped by 94, with 50,633 people in the labor force last month.

A year ago Roswell had hundreds more workers unemployed, giving it a slightly higher jobless rate of 6.8 percent.

City                     Rate
Alpharetta             6.4%
Atlanta                11.2
Douglasville         11.0
Johns Creek          7.0
Kennesaw             9.0
Marietta                8.7

Roswell               6.5
Sandy Springs       6.5

Smyrna                8.4
Metro Atlanta        8.3

Georgia                8.6

Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate declined to 8.3 percent in February, down four-tenths of a percentage point from 8.7 percent in January. The rate was 9.3 percent in February a year ago.

The rate declined because the number of jobs increased and there were fewer new layoffs, which were represented by initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits.

The number of jobs in metro Atlanta increased by 6,400, climbing to 2,369,000 from 2,362,600 in January. Most of the growth came in professional and business services, 5,000, and education and health care, 2,500. Some seasonal jobs were lost in trade, transportation, and warehousing.