Unemployment rate down in Polk for March

Good news for Polk County’s economic outlook: unemployment is continuing a downward trend in the area.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said that Polk County saw its unemployment rate and claims for unemployment decline in March, according to a release from the Department of Labor.

Polk also posted monthly losses in labor force, while employed residents were up, preliminary numbers show.

“We are moving into the Spring with a strong jobs report,” Butler said in the release. “The national economy is booming. Georgia is also producing strong numbers consistently across the state.”

The unemployment rate fell in March. The rate dropped 0.6 percentage points in March, settling at 3.9 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.2 percent.

The labor force decreased in March by 34. The March total was 18,400. That number is down by 304 from the total of March 2018.

Polk ended March with 17,674 employed residents. The number increased by 63 in March but went down by 245 as compared to last March.

The number of unemployment claims decreased in March by about 13 percent. When compared to last March, claims were up by about 124 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed 83 active job postings in Polk for March.

In comparison to the surrounding area, Polk’s unemployment outlook is matching. Floyd County’s rate un-adjusted was 3.9 percecnt compared to an adjusted rate of 4.4 percent in February. Bartow stood at 3.5 percent in March, marking a two tenths of a percentage point drop from February’s rate of 3.7 percent. Haralson also saw a two-tenths of a percent drop, from 3.8 percent in February to 3.6 percent in March. Paulding also saw a drop from 3.4 percent to 3.2 percent from February to March.