Milton, Alpharetta See Drop in Jobless Rates

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Preliminary figures show unemployment rates for both Alpharetta and Milton declined last month.

That’s according to numbers released by the Georgia Department of Labor. Alpharetta’s rate dropped from 5 percent in November to 4.8 in December. Last month’s figure is still higher than the December 2013 rate of 4.6, however.

For Milton, the city’s rate dropped from 5.2 to 5.1 percent from November to December. Like Alpharetta, Milton’s rate last month is still higher its December 2013 rate of 4.5 percent.

Rates for surrounding cities include: Atlanta at 8.6 percent; Duluth at 5.6 percent; Dunwoody at 4.8 percent; Johns Creek at 5.4 percent; Kennesaw at 7.4 percent; Marietta at 6.5 percent; Roswell at 4.9 percent; Sandy Springs at 5.1 percent; and Woodstock at 6.2 percent.

At the regional level, the unemployment rate in metro Atlanta remained unchanged in December, but the number of jobs grew slightly, the state labor department said Thursday.

• Click here for detailed information on Georgia’s labor force

The Georgia Department of Labor said in a press release that the metro’s jobless rate was 6.4 percent in December, the same rate as November.

However, jobs grew by 5,500 (0.2 percent), ending a three-year streak that saw the metro lose an average of 900 jobs from November to December.

The jobless rate for metro Atlanta was 6.8 percent in December 2013. The labor department said most of the new December jobs in metro Atlanta came from industries associated with holiday hiring.

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 December was 6.9 percent, down from 7.2 percent in November. Georgia labor market data is available at www.gdol.ga.gov.

Patch Editor Scott Bernarde contributed to this article

Sign up for the Alpharetta-Milton Patch newsletter!