There's good news on the local jobs front going into the last quarter of 2012. 

The preliminary unemployment rate in metro Gainesville declined to 7.2 percent in August, down five-tenths of a percentage point from 7.7 percent in July, the Georgia Department of Labor announced today.

The local jobless rate was 8.1 percent in August 2011.

The rate decreased because there were 425 fewer layoffs in manufacturing and administrative and support services. Also, the metro labor force declined by 1,712, partially because some students left summer jobs to return to school.

In metro Gainesville — which includes all of in Hall County — jobs decreased to 78,700 in August, down by 400 from July, but up by 3,500 from 75,200 in August 2011. 

Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 9.2 percent in August, unchanged from July. The jobless rate was 9.9 percent in August a year ago.

The number of jobs in the state rose by 25,100, or six-tenths of a percentage point, from 3,914,100 in July to 3,939,200 in August. Georgia has created 49,700 jobs since August 2011 when there were 3,889,500 jobs.

The unemployment rate in the Georgia Mountains area dropped to 7.8 percent in August, down from 8.2 percent in July. The rate was 8.7 percent in August 2011.

Metro Athens continued to have the lowest area jobless rate at 6.7 percent, while the Heart of Georgia-Altamaha Regional Commission had the highest at 12.2 percent.

Georgia labor market data are available at www.dol.state.ga.us.