Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Columbus in April tied a record for its lowest unemployment rate ever.  
 
According to preliminary data Columbus also added jobs and saw a reduction in initial unemployment claims across the five-county metropolitan statistical area (MSA).
 
“Georgia’s economy continues to be strong,” Butler said, “In April we saw several communities set records for jobs and others set records for lowest unemployment rate. Typically, we see gains through the summer as well.”
 
The unemployment rate fell 0.5 percentage points in April, reaching 3.8 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.4 percent.
 
Nationally, the rate for April dropped to 3.6 percent.
 
Columbus ended April with 123,100 jobs. That’s an increase of 100 jobs over the month and an increase of 700 jobs when compared to the same time a year ago.
 
The labor force decreased in April by 1,030. The total was 123,367. That number has gone down by 1,801 when compared to April of 2018.
 
Columbus ended April with 118,698 employed residents.  That number fell by 294 over the month and decreased by 1,015 when compared to the same time a year ago.
 
The number of unemployment claims went down by 9 percent in April. When compared to last April, claims were down by about 8 percent.
 
The five-county MSA includes the Georgia counties of Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion and Muscogee and Russell in Alabama.