Georgia unemployment rate stays flat in May

Georgia's unemployment rate in 2012

Nearly one in eleven people are still looking for work in Georgia.

"Two areas that really kind of stick out," says Butler, "is we saw job gains in manufacturing again, which has been a really good job sector for Georgia here in the last 11 to 12 months. Also, we saw an increase in construction jobs."

The state unemployment rate stayed at 8.9 percent in May, according to numbers released by the Georgia Labor Department Thursday.

While the jobless rate didn't go down, State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler says the rate also hasn't gone up in the last 10 months.

Butlers says Georgia also now has the fewest number of people on unemployment since the start of the recession.

"On the downside," says Butler, "we actually saw, again, government jobs decrease."

The national unemployment rate for May was 8.2 percent.