October unemployment numbers for Fayette County continued their incremental but steady climb that began last year. Data released late last week by the Georgia Dept. of Labor (DOL) show a rate of 8.5 percent, up two-tenths of 1 percent from September.

What is now an 8.5 percent jobless rate was 8.3 percent in September and 6.1 percent just a year ago. The current rate in Fayette translates into 4,386 people without jobs out of a workforce of 51,346.

Fayette is the only county in both south and southwest metro Atlanta with an unemployment rate of less than 10.2 percent.

Tracking Georgia’s larger cities, DOL reported an unemployment rate in Peachtree City of 7.6 percent, up from 7.5 percent in September and also up from the 5.5 percent rate in October 2008.

Unemployment rates in neighboring counties continued to rise during the past month. Coweta showed a jump to 10.5 percent in October compared to the 9.9 percent rate in September and 6.3 percent a year ago.

DOL figures showed that the unemployment rate for the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission area for October held steady at 10.2 percent. Unemployment in October 2008 was listed at 6.9 percent.

The situation in the broader 28-county Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area remained static in October, with the same 10.4 percent unemployment rate seen in September. The October 2008 rate was 6.9 percent.

And across Georgia, the 10 percent threshold crossed earlier in the autumn continued to rise. The September unemployment rate of 10.1 percent climbed to 10.2 in October. The state’s unemployment rate in October 2008 was 6.9 percent.

Georgia’s highest unemployment rate, 20.4 percent, is found Hancock County in the east central portion of the state while the lowest is 5.9 percent in Oconee County near Athens.

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