The Georgia Department of Labor announced today that Metro Augusta’s unemployment rate for August was 8.0 percent, unchanged from July. The rate in August of last year was 8.3 percent. 

Although the rate remained unchanged, the number of jobs increased by 600 and the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance, a measure of new layoffs, declined 28 percent.

There were 221,700 jobs in Augusta in August, up 0.3 percent from July. The gains came mostly in education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and local government, as non-contract school workers, who were out for the summer, returned to work.

And, there was an over-the-year gain of 5,400 jobs, or 2.5 percent, from August 2013. The job gains came in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and the goods-producing sector, which includes mining, logging, and construction.  

Also, there were 1,408 new claims for unemployment insurance filed in August, a decrease of 547 from 1,955 in July. Most of the decrease in claims came in manufacturing, administrative services, and health care and social assistance. Over the year, claims were up by 3.2 percentage points from 1,364 claims filed in August 2013.

Metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate at 6.4 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 10.7 percent. 

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for August was 8.1 percent, up from a revised 7.7 percent in July. It was 8.2 percent in August 2013.