The Georgia Department of Labor announced today that Metro Augusta’s unemployment rate for August was 6.5 percent, down five-tenths of a percentage point from 7.0 percent in July. The rate in August 2014 was 8.0 percent.

The rate declined as employers created more jobs and new layoffs, as measured by initial unemployment insurance claims, decreased. 

The number of jobs in Augusta increased by 1,200, or 0.5 percent, in August to 229,300. The job gains came mostly in state and local government, as school system employees returned from the summer recess, education and health services and retail trade.  

Over-the-year, Augusta gained 5,300 jobs, a growth rate of 2.4 percent, from 224,000 in August 2014. Most of the job growth came in leisure and hospitality, education and health services, trade, transportation and warehousing and local government.  

Also, the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance declined by 1,017, or 46.9 percent, to 1,150 in August. Most of the decrease came in manufacturing and administrative and support services.  Over the year, claims were down by 285, or 19.9 percent, from 1,435 in August 2014.     

Metro Gainesville had the lowest area jobless rate at 4.8 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 7.7 percent.  

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for August was 5.9 percent, down from 6.0 percent in July. It was 7.1 percent in August 2014.