The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metro area's labor force grew by about 69,000 people over the past year, but the number of jobs located in the region did not keep pace, and the metro's unemployment rate edged up to 3.5% in September from 3.4% a year earlier, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics
Unemployment rates were lower in September than a year earlier in 226 of the nation's 387 metropolitan areas, higher in 138 and unchanged in 23, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday, Oct. 28.
August payrolls rose 162,000, but the revised three-month average is about 71,000, hiring and quit rates are subdued and layoffs remain low. The evidence fits a cooling market better than a breaking one, with caveats.
