Metro jobless rate, hiring both up

New graduates, school employees flood workforce in June.

The metro Atlanta unemployment rate rose in June to 4.9 percent from 4.5 percent in May, the state Labor Department reported Thursday.

The uptick came despite an added 14,100 jobs during the month — more than in any month since 2000.

It also left the metro rate slightly lower than the state rate, reported last week at 4.8 percent, down from 4.9 percent. However, the methodology for the two rates is slightly different, so comparisons are imprecise.

In metro Atlanta, strong hiring couldn’t make up for a tide of jobseekers. Thousands of new graduates entered the workforce and thousands of school employees got annual summer pink slips.

Unemployment rates show the ratio of job seekers to the labor force, or the total number of people working or searching. So strong growth in the labor force can cancel out solid hiring, which appears to be the case in June for metro Atlanta.

Leading the hiring charge were the corporate sector, as well as leisure and hospitality. According to the Labor Department, financial services and manufacturing also saw job growth, while there were losses in construction, trade, transportation and utilities, and

government.

Year to date, the economy has added 24,000 jobs. In the past 18 years only two — 2014 and 1999 — posted stronger first-half showings.

After seven years of job growth, the metro jobless rate has fallen back into a relatively healthy zone. Coming out of the recession, the unemployment rate hovered in double digits for several years.

By June of 2016, it had slid to 5.3 percent. The unemployment now is similar to that of the period before Dec. 2007, the month that the Great Recession began.

Since hitting bottom in early 2010, the metro Atlanta economy has added about 523,300 jobs.

Overall, the state has seen claims for unemployment benefits drop 6 percent in the past year. In Atlanta, it has edged down 2.9 percent.