Georgia's unemployment rate continues to drop, but State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Georgia's jobs total fell in April.
The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) issued April numbers Thursday morning.
Nationally, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6% in April. Georgia’s rate fell to 3.8%, a drop of .1 percentage points. A year ago, Georgia’s unemployment rate sat at 4.2%, according to Butler.
"The annual numbers continue to be strong," Butler said. "While April numbers were somewhat down, the long-term numbers all trend in the right directions."
Butler also noted that preliminary numbers showed year-over-year gains in jobs, employment and workforce.
"You see this happen from time to time,” Butler said. “Monthly numbers fluctuate. But all the trends look good."
For annual job growth, the top sectors were:
- Education/health services, 18,900
- Professional/business services, 14,700
- Leisure/hospitality, 13,500.
Georgia’s labor force slipped by 10,247 versus a total work force of more than 5.1 million. Butler said even with the monthly loss, the labor force grew by more than 4,000 from the same month a year ago.
The change in employed residents was even smaller, just 6,882 lost among a total of 4.91 million. Again, even with the monthly loss, the annual number was still up by 17,563.
At the same time, new claims for unemployment were up by about 12 percent compared with last month. For the year, they were down by 2 percent.
Job postings on EmployGeorgia.com settled in April at 80,227.
