The latest numbers from the Labor Department show the unemployment rate went up in most parts of Georgia in January. But there is a silver lining with a glimmer of job growth in certain industries.

The unemployment rate in Georgia increased .2 percentage points to 9.2 percent—up from December. Metro Athens had the lowest area rate at 7.1 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 12.7 percent.

Layoffs in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, transportation, warehousing, and administrative and support services accounted for the unemployment spike.

But Tom Krause, with the Department of Labor says the numbers also show a hiring surge in the business services sector, including staffing agencies:

“When we do see growth in business services, we like that, it shows that businesses are getting more confidence and hopefully that will continue. Some of the statewide numbers showed increases in those areas and that is definitely positive.”

Since last year at this time, professional and business services gained 37,000 jobs. Retail trade gained over 15,000 jobs, heath care and social assistance grew by 11,000 and manufacturing saw 73-hundred new jobs.

Eric Adelman, President of Atlanta’s Three Pillars Recruiting says being in the business of getting people hired is better than ever:

“The closer people are to generating revenue, that’s always a significant area of growth, sales people, business development, operations roles that are essential to doing business, certainly marketing a little behind sales, and we’re doing a lot of technology roles as well.”

According to the Dept of Labor, Georgia gained nearly 84,000 jobs in the last 12 months. This is the largest January to January job growth since 2006.

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