Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Columbus added jobs in March.
 
According to preliminary data Columbus also lowered the unemployment rate, gain employed residents and shrink initial claims across the five-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.”
 
The unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage points in March, reaching 4.3 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.7 percent.
 
Columbus ended March with 123,500 jobs. That’s an increase of 700 jobs over the month and an increase of 1,000 jobs when compared to the same time a year ago.
 
The labor force decreased in March by 161. The total was 124,949. That number has gone down by 1,296 when compared to March of 2018.
 
Columbus ended March with 119,541 employed residents.  That number grew by 152 over the month and decreased by 728 when compared to the same time a year ago.
 
The number of unemployment claims went down by 9 percent in March. When compared to last March, claims were up by about 15 percent.
 
The five-county MSA includes the Georgia counties of Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion and Muscogee and Russell in Alabama.