Valdosta lowers rate in April

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Valdosta lowered the unemployment rate in April.

Valdosta, preliminary numbers showed, positive annual numbers for all major indicators for the four-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.”

Valdosta ended April with 57,200 jobs. That’s an increase of about 1,200 from the job total as of a year ago but remained flat from last month’s total.

The unemployment rate fell in April, dropping by 0.6 percentage points to settle at 3.1 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.8 percent.

The labor force decreased in April by 878 to reach 64,234. That number is up by 63 from the total of April 2018.

Jobs remained flat for Valdosta over the month, coming in at 57,200.  When compared to the same time last year Valdosta gained 1,200 jobs.

Valdosta ended April with 62,235 employed residents.  The number decreased by 453 in April and was up by 478 over April 2018’s total.

The number of unemployment claims rose in April by about 13 percent. They were down by 16 percent from the same period last year.

The four-county MSA includes Brooks, Echols, Lanier and Lowndes counties.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.comshowed 509 active job postings in metro Valdosta for April.