Metro Gainesville’s jobless rate down to 7.2 percent

ATLANTA — The unemployment rate in the metro Gainesville area fell to 7.2 percent in March, down three-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 7.5 percent in February, Georgia Department of Labor announced today.

The jobless rate in metro Gainesville, which includes all of Hall County, was 8.5 percent in March 2011.

The rate dropped because there were fewer layoffs in construction, manufacturing, trade and administrative and support services, the Labor Department said.

Metro Athens had the lowest area rate at 6.7 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 11.6 percent.

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined in March for the eighth consecutive month to 9.0 percent, the lowest rate since February 2009, when it was 8.9 percent. That is a decline of one-tenth of a percentage point from a revised 9.1 percent in February. The jobless rate was 9.8 percent in March a

Article source: http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/75/article/66703/

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