Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Atlanta posted a strong March with key metrics trending in the right directions.

Atlanta, preliminary numbers showed, posted monthly gains in jobs and employed residents. Meanwhile, the number of unemployment claims decreased, and the unemployment rate dropped for the 29-county metropolitan statistical area (MSA).

“Overall, March was a very good month,” Butler said. “Georgia’s economy, just like the nation’s, is running strong. Our communities are consistently adding jobs and unemployment rates are falling. The numbers continue to improve.”

Atlanta ended March with 2.82 million jobs. That’s an increase of about 60,300 from the job total as of a year ago and it’s up 12,300 from last month’s total.

Atlanta also posted gains for jobs in:

Local government

Private services.

The unemployment rate fell in March, dropping by 0.2 percentage points to settle at 3.6 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.9 percent.

Nationally, the rate for March remained unchanged at 3.8 percent.

The labor force decreased in March by 3,877 to reach 3.07 million. That number is down by 5,373 from the total of March 2018.

Atlanta ended February with 2.96 million employed residents.  The number climbed by 2,712 in March and was up by 5,869 over March 2018’s total.

The numbers of unemployment claims fell in March by 15 percent and were down by 15 percent from the same period last year.    

Claims were down in:

Manufacturing

Administrative/support services.

Counties included in the MSA are Barrow, Bartow, Butts, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Haralson, Heard, Henry, Jasper, Lamar, Meriwether, Morgan, Newton, Paulding, Pickens, Pike, Rockdale, Spalding and Walton.