Nearly three-quarters of Georgia’s 159 counties have double-digit unemployment. That’s above the state average of 10.4 percent and leaves only a handful of local economies that are weathering the downturn.

Joblessness stands at 13 percent in the northwest Dalton region and nearly 11 percent in the southwest Georgia’s Albany area. Those new numbers from the state’s labor department illustrate how most local economies are still struggling to get their footing.

But it’s a different case in middle Georgia around Warner Robins, where joblessness is at 7.8 percent.

Morgan Law with the Houston County Development Authority attributes lower unemployment to Robins Air Force Base, which provides more than 20,000 jobs. But Law says his team is still working to create more jobs.

“There’s also a move to diversify the economy here, and not have all of our eggs in the one basket. And interestingly, we’ve seen a nice increase in our prospect activity in the past eight weeks,” Law said.

Statewide, the clusters of highest unemployment rates continue to be in northwest, southwest, and east Georgia.

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