Jobless rate jumps in June | News

ATLANTA -- Metro Atlanta's unemployment rate rose to 8.9 in June.

In Floyd County, the unemployment rate was 9.8 percent.

The Georgia Department of Labor announced the new numbers early Thursday.

The 8.9 percent rate for June was up seven-tenths of a percent point from May's 8.2 percent. It's still under the 9.3 percent rate in June a year ago.

The labor department said the rate increased primarily because of two seasonal factors: large numbers of education workers are unemployed during the summer and new graduates are considered unemployed until they find jobs.

Metro Athens had Georgia's lowest area jobless rate at 7.2 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest at 12.9 percent.