The metro Gainesville unemployment rate for August fell to 6.7 percent, down three-tenths of a percentage point from 7 percent in July, Georgia Department of Labor announced today.

The rate in August 2013 was 6.4 percent in the region, which includes all of Hall County.

The Labor Department attributes the rate's decline primarily because the number of jobs increased and the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance, a measure of new layoffs, decreased.

There were 79,300 jobs in Gainesville in August, up by 700, or 0.9 percent, from July. The gains came mostly in trade and transportation, state and local government, and the goods-producing sector, which includes manufacturing and construction.

There also was an over-the-year gain of 1,500 jobs, or 1.9 percent, from August 2013. The job gains came mostly in trade and transportation, local government, and the goods-producing sector, which includes manufacturing and construction.

The state received 529 new claims for unemployment insurance filed in August, a decrease of 85, or 13.8 percent, from 614 in July. Most of the decrease in claims came in administrative services, health care and social assistance. Over the year, claims were down 21.7 percent from the 676 claims filed in August 2013.

The jobless rate in the Georgia Mountains region was 6.9 percent in August, down two-tenths of a percentage point from 7.1 percent in July. The rate in August of last year was 6.8 percent.

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

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.

Georgia labor market data are available at www.gdol.ga.gov.