Metro Gainesville’s unemployment rate for July was 5.5 percent, up two-tenths of a percentage point from 5.3 percent in June, according to the Georgia Department of Labor. It was still the lowest rate among the state’s metro areas and considerably lower than the 7 percent unemployment rate in metro Gainesville in July 2014. The rate rose as the number of jobs decreased and the number of new layoffs, as measured by unemployment insurance claims, increased.