Metro Athens added 1,000 jobs in September, bringing the region’s unemployment rate down to 6.4 percent, the lowest of any metro area in the state, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.
The DOL attributed the decline to fewer layoffs in the manufacturing, construction and retail industries. About 2,164 more people were employed in September than in August.
The unemployment rate dropped four-tenths of a percentage point from August’s rate of 6.8 percent, and 1.2 percentage points from the 7.6 percent rate in September 2011.
Georgia’s unemployment rate was 9 percent last month, down from 9.2 percent the previous month and 9.8 percent a year ago. The national unemployment rate is 7.8 percent.
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