Gwinnett County Jobless Rate Now Under 6 Percent

Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate took a three-tenths of a percentage point dip in April, the Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday.

The rate declined significantly in Gwinnett County, too

The metro rate fell from 6.8 percent in March to 6.5 in April. The jobless rate was 7.7 percent a year ago.

The decline is attributed to the creation of 18,000 more jobs in April in the region.

Most of the job gains came in leisure and hospitality (6,300), professional and business services (5,300), and construction (2,700). The labor department said the job gains from March to April in metro Atlanta has averaged 13,000 over the past five years.

In Gwinnett County, the jobless rate fell from 6.0 in March to an estimated 5.8 in April.

The number of unemployed workers in Gwinnett County fell from 26,437 to 25,514.

Among the cities with populations more than 25,000 tracked by the labor department, Duluth’s jobless rate fell from 6.2 to 5.3 in April, and Lawrenceville’s rate rose slightly from 8.1 to 8.2.

Metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate in the state at 4.9 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 8.8 percent.

Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 7.0 percent, unchanged from March.

Note: Local area unemployment data is not seasonally adjusted.