Unemployment Down in Stephens Co.

February unemployment numbers from the Georgia Department of Labor show good news for Stephens County.

According to those figures that the state released last week, Stephens County’s preliminary unemployment rate in February was 5.5 percent, which was down six-tenths of a percentage point from January and four-tenths of a percentage point from February 2016.

Stephens County also saw an increase in its labor force and the number of people who were employed in February.

The county’s labor force in February was 11,164, which is up from 11,144 in January and 11,048 in February 2016.

Meanwhile, Stephens County had 10,548 people employed in February, which is up from 10,467 in January and 10,401 in February 2016.

The trends from Stephens County were mirrored in the Georgia Mountains region as a whole.

In February, the Georgia Mountains region had a preliminary unemployment rate of 4.4 percent, which is down three-tenths of a percentage point from both January and February 2016.

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said February was a good month on the job front for the whole region.

“Not only did we see initial claims for unemployment drop by over 50 percent, but we saw more individuals enter into the labor force,” said Butler. “These are individuals who may not have been looking for jobs before and we saw over 1,200 individuals come back into the labor force, which means that they are encouraged by the jobs picture that they are seeing right now in the Georgia Mountains area. Further evidence to that is the fact that we saw over 2,400 people actually gain employment over the month of February, which quite frankly is the most important number that we look at as we see Georgians continue to go back to work.”

Looking at other area unemployment rates, Franklin County’s preliminary unemployment rate went down three-tenths of a percentage point to 5.1 percent in February; Habersham County saw its February preliminary unemployment rate go down two-tenths of a percentage point to 5.1 percent; and Banks County’s preliminary unemployment rate in February went down three-tenths of a percentage point to 4.4 percent.