Metro Atlanta Unemployment Rate Jumps to 10.7%

By Jim Burress

Atlanta, GA – Metro Atlanta saw its unemployment rate jump from 9.5 percent in May to 10.7 percent in June.

Only Dalton had a higher unemployment rate. The north Georgia city saw 13 percent of its population out of a job last month.

Atlanta's 1.2 percentage point increase is more than double the rate of the state's May-to-June increase.

As a whole, Georgia saw a 10.1 percent unemployment rate last month. In hard numbers, that means more than 483,000 Georgians are actively seeking work. About half of those are receiving either state or extended federal unemployment benefits.

The two bright spots are education and healthcare. Combined, those sectors showed an increase of 12,000 jobs.

Jim Burress, WABE News