Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Macon tied a record in April for lowest unemployment rate ever recorded.

According to preliminary data, Macon also saw unemployment claims fall across the five-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.”

The unemployment rate fell 0.6 percentage points in April, reaching 3.4 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.1 percent.

Nationally, the rate for April dropped to 3.6 percent.

Macon ended April with 103,700 jobs. That’s a decrease of 100 jobs over the month and an increase of 600 jobs when compared to the same time a year ago.

The labor force decreased in April by 1,290. The total was 103,055. That number has gone down by 1,775 from the total from April 2018.

Macon ended April with 99,530 employed residents.  That number fell by 618 over the month and decreased by 1,043 when compared to the same time a year ago.

The number of unemployment claims went down by 1 percent in April. When compared to last April, claims were up by about 40 percent.

The five-county MSA includes the counties of Bibb, Jones, Crawford, Monroe, Twiggs.