The Georgia Department of Labor announced today that the unemployment rate in the Middle Georgia region for April was 6.4 percent, down two-tenths of a percentage point from 6.6 percent in March. This is the lowest the rate has been since August 2008 when it was 6.4 percent. The rate in April 2014 was 7.2 percent.

The rate declined as the number of unemployed residents decreased to 13,541, down by 553 from 14,094 in March.

The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 110, or 7.7 percent, to 1,531 in April, up from 1,421 in March. Most of the increase in claims came in construction, manufacturing and transportation and warehousing. Over the year, claims were up by 71, or 4.9 percent, from 1,460 filed in April  2014.     

Metro Gainesville had the lowest area jobless rate at 4.7 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha and the River Valley regions had the highest at 7.3 percent. 

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for April was 6.3 percent, unchanged from March. It was 7.3 percent in April 2014.