The Georgia Department of Labor announced today that Metro Savannah’s unemployment rate for August was 7.8 percent, down one-tenth of a percentage point from 7.9 percent in July. The rate in August of last year was 7.6 percent. 

The declined primarily because the number of jobs increased by 1,700. There were 165,300 jobs in Savannah in August, up or 1.0 percent from July. The gains came in leisure and hospitality, trade, transportation, and warehousing, and state and local government.   

And, there was an over-the-year gain of 3,900 jobs, or 2.4 percent, from August 2013. The job gains came mostly in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and trade, transportation and warehousing.    

There were 1,078 new claims for unemployment insurance filed in August, an increase of seven, or 0.7 percent, from 1,071 in July. Most of the increase in claims came in retail trade and administrative services. Over the year, the number of claims fell 9.8 percent from the 1,195 claims filed in August 2013.    

Metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate at 6.4 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 10.7 percent. 

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for August was 8.1 percent, up from a revised 7.7 percent in July. It was 8.2 percent in August 2013.