Stephens Co. Unemployment Drops in March

Stephens County sees its unemployment rate drop in March.

According to figures released this week by the Georgia Department of Labor, Stephens County had a preliminary unemployment rate for March of 6.9 percent.

That is three-tenths of a percentage lower than the revised February rate of 7.2 percent and half a percentage point lower than the revised rate for March 2014 of 7.4 percent.

Also, Stephens County saw its number of employed grow last month, going from 10,200 in February to 10,262 in March.

Stephens County’s labor force also grew slightly, going from 10,986 to 11,027.

However, the labor force and number of employed in Stephens County this March are still lower than the same figures for March 2014, when the labor force was 11,514 and the number of employed was 10,660.

As for other area counties, they also saw their unemployment rates go down in the month of March.

Franklin County saw its preliminary March unemployment rate drop nine-tenths of a percentage point to 6.5 percent; Habersham County saw a two-tenth of a percentage point drop in its preliminary March unemployment rate to 6.0 percent; and Banks County saw its preliminary March unemployment rate drop two-tenths of a percentage point to 5.7 percent.