Metro Atlanta Unemployment Rate Falls 0.1% in March

“We’re only 100,000 jobs short of where we were prior to the Great Recession.  We’re 71% of the way back and the rate of job growth is accelerating,” says Dr. Jeff Humphreys, an economist with the University of Georgia.

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The DOL says nearly 18,000 jobs were added in metro Atlanta last month.

But, there’s another factor that helped bring the unemployment rate down…..fewer eligible people are applying for jobs, including some young adults.

“They’re just staying in college, going for advanced degrees or they’re doing some other stuff, or going entrepreneurial, even,” says Dr. Rajeev Dhawan, with Georgia State University.

As for nearby counties, Gwinnett had the lowest unemployment rate at 6%, followed by Cobb at 6.3%.

Statewide, the unemployment rate for March was 7%, slightly above the national average at 6.7%