Politics & Government

Bartow Jobless Rate Falls to 9.7%

About 220 more county residents were working in February than in January.

Bartow County’s unemployment rate continued to fall in February, according to preliminary figures released today by the Georgia Department of Labor.

The rate slid to 9.7 percent last month, down from a and a .

About 220 more Bartow residents were working in February than in January, and the county gained more than 1,160 working residents in a year, according to the Labor Department.

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within the county since the launched its last April.

The February rate for Bartow still was higher than the national rate of 8.3 percent, unchanged from January, and the state rate of 9.1 percent, down from 9.2 percent in January.

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For the 15-county area covered by the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission, including Bartow, the February rate was 9.6 percent, compared with 9.8 percent in January and 10.5 percent in February 2011.

For the 28-county Atlanta metro area, which also includes Bartow, the unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent from 9.1 percent in January and 9.9 percent in February 2011.

Fewer layoffs in manufacturing, construction, trade, and administrative and support services fueled the drop in the Atlanta metro unemployment rate, the state Labor Department said.

While the national and statewide figures are seasonally adjusted, the local numbers are not, so the comparisons with a year ago are a better gauge of the employment picture than the month-to-month variations.

The state gained 15,600 jobs in February, 70 percent of them in the private sector, for a total of 3,880,400, the Labor Department said.

In the past year, Georgia added 41,800 jobs, most of them in professional and business services, the state department said. Other top areas for job growth were retail trade, education and health care, and manufacturing.

The state Labor Department held a live, online chat Wednesday on , following up on in February and in January.

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February's Unemployment ReportΒ 

Jurisdiction Preliminary Feb. 2012 Revised Jan. 2012 Revised Feb. 2011 United States 8.3% 8.3% 9.0% Georgia 9.1% 9.2% 9.9% Atlanta metro 9.0% 9.1% 9.9% Atlanta Regional Commission 9.0% 9.1% 9.9% Northwest Georgia 9.6% 9.8% 10.5% Bartow County 9.7% 9.8% 10.9% Cherokee County 7.6% 7.6% 8.6% Cobb County 8.4% 8.4% 9.2% Douglas County 9.4% 9.5% 10.8% Paulding County 8.5% 8.6% 9.8% Douglasville 10.5% 10.9% 11.3% Kennesaw 10.2% 10.3% 11.4% Marietta 9.5% 9.5% 9.9% Note: U.S. and Georgia rates are seasonally adjusted; all regional, county and city rates are not.


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