ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday that the preliminary unemployment rate in metro Savannah declined to 8.0 percent in September, down six-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 8.6 percent in August. The rate was 9.2 percent in September 2011.

Unemployment in Effingham County for last month stood at 7.2 percent. Only Long County, at 6.8 percent, had a lower unemployment rate of counties covered by the Coastal Regional Commission.

The metro Savannah rate declined primarily because there were 325 fewer layoffs in manufacturing, construction, trade, transportation and warehousing, administrative and support services, educational services, health care and social assistance, and accommodations and food services, plus 2,137 more people were employed.

The preliminary unemployment rate in the Coastal Georgia area declined to 8.6 percent in September, down four-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 9.0 percent in August. The rate was 9.8 percent in September 2011.

The rate declined primarily because of 398 fewer layoffs in construction, trade, transportation and warehousing, administrative and support services, and accommodations and food services, plus 2,582 more people were employed.

Metro Athens continued to have the lowest area jobless rate at 6.4 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 11.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined to 9.0 percent in September, down two-tenths of a percentage point from 9.2 percent in August. The jobless rate was 9.8 percent in September a year ago.

While the state lost 400 jobs from August to September, it actually gained 61,800 jobs since the 3,877,600 in September of 2011, climbing to 3,939,400.

In metro Savannah, the number of jobs decreased to 153,900 in September, down by 600 from August, but up by 3,600 from 150,300 in September 2011.