Dalton posts strong April

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Dalton posted a strong April with key metrics trending in the right directions.

Dalton, preliminary numbers showed, recorded gains in jobs and both for the month and year. Meanwhile, Dalton also posted improving annual numbers for labor force and employment for the two-county metropolitan statistical area (MSA).

“Georgia’s economy continues to be strong,” Butler said, “In April we saw several communities set records for jobs and others set records for lowest unemployment rate. Typically, we see gains through the summer as well.”

Dalton ended April with 69,400 jobs. That’s an increase of about 1,900 from the job total as of a year ago and it’s up 300 from last month’s total.

The unemployment rate decreased in April, dropping by 0.6 percentage points to settle at 4 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.4 percent.

Nationally, the rate for April dropped to 3.6 percent.

The labor force decreased in April by 591 to reach 61,096. That number is up by 353 from the total of April 2018.

Dalton ended April with 58,638 employed residents.  The number dropped by 232 inApril and was up by 572 over March 2018’s total.

The number of unemployment claims fell in April by about 3 percent. Claims were up by about 226 percent from the same period last year.

The two-county MSA includes Whitfield and Murray counties.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.comshowed 574 active job postings in metro Dalton for April.