Thu., March 31, 2011 4:00pm (EDT)

State Adds Jobs
By Edgar Treiguts
Updated: 2 years ago

ATLANTA  —  
Jobs in construction made up a good amount of the new jobs added in Georgia in February. (photo courtesy Jake Moomaw)
Jobs in construction made up a good amount of the new jobs added in Georgia in February. (photo courtesy Jake Moomaw)
State labor officials say nearly all of Georgia’s 25 metro areas added jobs in February. Metro Atlanta led the way with more than 16,000 new hires. Augusta, Columbus and Savannah each gained 800 jobs. So did hard-hit Dalton in northwest Georgia.

Sam Hall with Georgia’s Department of Labor says there’s also good news in one particular sector where jobs are showing up.

“We had a fairly significant increase in the number of construction jobs. In fact Georgia was ranked third in the nation in the number of job increases in construction.”

Hall says the state added 5,400 new jobs in construction last month.

That nearly matched new jobs in education and health services, sectors which generally have weathered the recession.