The improvement in the local area’s unemployment rate was short lived with December figures indicating another rise.

According to a press release for the state Department of Labor, preliminary unemployment figures for metro Atlanta indicate a rise of two-tenths of a percentage point, up to 9.4 percent – up from 9.2 percent in November. The figures for Northeast Atlanta reflect the same trend with December’s unemployment rate at 9.2 percent, up three-tenths of a percentage point from 8.9 percent in December.

These figures, however, are still an improvement over December 2010 when the employment rate was 10.1 percent in metro Atlanta and 9.7 in Northeast Georgia. In addition, Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has continued the downward trend with a decline in December for the third straight month. Albeit a small decline, the unemployment rate for Georgia was 9.7 percent in December, down from 9.8 in November and still lower than the 10.4 percent it was in December 2010.

Officials said in the release that the state rate declined because 11,500 Georgians returned to work in December. Statewide, there were 600 new construction jobs, and 400 new manufacturing jobs. Jobs were also gained in information services and trade and transportation.

Local area unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted. Georgia labor market data are available at www.dol.state.ga.us.

The good news, however, is that Georgians who find themselves on state unemployment insurance are able to free themselves from the need for those benefits nearly a month sooner than the national average. Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said this is because the Georgia DOL ties benefits to job training and re-employment services.

“When people think of a labor department, traditionally they think of the ‘unemployment office,’” Butler said in the press release. “In Georgia, we are trying to stop that. This is an ‘employment office.’ We strive for that designation.”

Georgia has the lowest duration in the South for people requesting state unemployment benefits and is second only to North Dakota nationally. With North Dakota's total population less than 675,000, and no metro base, Georgia has a much more labor-intensive population.

According to a press release, as of December 2011, the average Georgian on state unemployment insurance stopped benefits after 13.3 weeks, more than four weeks earlier than the national average of 17.4 weeks. At the moment, the unemployed in Georgia can stay on state benefits for 26 weeks before federal benefits begin.