Business & Tech

State's Unemployment Rate Up in June Due to Seasonal Impact, Loss of 600 Jobs

The state labor commissioner says there's a silver lining, though.

Georgia's unemployment rate rose to 8.6 percent in June, up three-tenths of a percentage point from 8.3 percent in May. 

“The rate increased primarily because of two factors that occur this time of year,” State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a news release. “A large number of education workers are unemployed during the summer and new graduates are considered unemployed until they find a job.”

The seasonal impact on the unemployment rate was compounded because the state lost 600 jobs and the number of people in the labor force declined by 1,341, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

“There is a silver lining in this new data because this was the best May-to-June job performance we’ve had since 2002, ” Butler said. “And, if you factor out the loss of 10,000 government jobs and just look at the private sector, we would have actually gained 9,400 jobs last month because our private sector employers continue to hire.”

Based on the most recent data from the GDOL, released in late June, Barrow County's unemployment rate for the month of May was at 7.7 percent, up from 7.2 percent in April.


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