Metro Atlanta Jobs Hold Nearly Flat as Unemployment Edges Up

Metro Atlanta entered the fall with roughly the same number of payroll jobs as a year earlier, even as more residents joined the workforce and unemployment edged higher.

The Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan area had an estimated 3,101,900 payroll jobs in September, down 2,700, or 0.1%, from September 2025. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics classified that change as not statistically significant in its Oct. 28 release, meaning the small decline does not establish a clear loss of employment.

For North Atlanta residents weighing a job change, the regional total conceals a sharper divide between industries. Health care and social assistance added 15,000 jobs over the year, while professional, scientific and technical services shed 7,600. Construction and finance also employed fewer people.

The Georgia Department of Labor’s September industry estimates put those changes across the full metropolitan area, including Cherokee, DeKalb, Forsyth, Fulton and Gwinnett counties. They are not separate job counts for Alpharetta, Cumming, Sandy Springs or other individual communities.

Industry	Jobs gained or lost since September 2025	Change
Health care and social assistance	+15,000	+3.9%
Wholesale trade	+2,600	+1.6%
Professional, scientific and technical services	−7,600	−2.8%
Construction	−3,600	−2.3%
Finance and insurance	−2,100	−1.4%

Within health care, outpatient services accounted for 11,000 of the year’s additional jobs. Hospitals added 2,400. These are net changes in employment, not counts of vacancies currently accepting applications.

The metro unemployment rate reached 3.5%, up from 3.4% both in August and a year earlier. About 118,343 residents were unemployed, compared with 112,102 in September 2025. Over the same year, the labor force grew by 69,140 people to nearly 3.39 million.

More residents were working, too. Subtracting unemployment from the labor force puts resident employment at about 3.27 million, an increase of roughly 62,900 over the year.

That increase can coexist with flat payrolls because the two measures count different things: one follows employed residents, while the other counts jobs at workplaces in the region. Neither measures how quickly an applicant can find work or whether a new job pays enough to replace a previous income.

September’s figures are preliminary and are not seasonally adjusted. They describe a region with little overall payroll growth and substantial differences by industry, leaving a health care applicant and an office professional facing different employment trends.