For the 19th month in a row, Georgia's unemployment rate has dropped. For November, the jobless rate was 2.8%, another record low.
Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler announced the numbers Thursday morning, saying the state now employs the highest number of Georgians ever, surpassing the number of employed prior to the pandemic by more than 3,000. The number of employed Georgians in November was up 11,983 from October to 5,027,981.
The unemployment rate of 2.8% was three-tenths of a point lower than the October rate.
"We have fully recovered from this pandemic when it comes to employed Georgians, employing more people today than before the pandemic struck,” said Butler.
The commissioner said, however, businesses continue to struggle to find workers.
“The hard work is still in front of us as job creation is outpacing new workers in the labor force," Butler said.
The labor force was down 235 in November to 5,174,199 and is up only 1,220 over the previous seven months. In comparing November 2021 figures to pre-pandemic March 2020 figures, the labor force remains down 32,000, the number of employed is up 10,000 and the number of unemployed is down 42,000. The number of unemployed was down 12,218 to 146,218 in November, the lowest figure since December 2000.
Jobs in Georgia were up 13,500 over the month and are up 4.4% over the year to 4,618,800. Since May, job growth has increased by 130,600.
“We have regained almost all of the jobs we lost during the pandemic; however, the number of job seekers is still below pre-pandemic numbers,” said Butler. “Creating more jobs becomes very difficult if we can’t fill vacancies in the 300,000 jobs that are currently open. It’s a good problem to have and shows how strong Georgia’s recovery has been especially compared to other states our size.”
The sectors with the most over-the-month job gains included Transportation and Warehousing, 4,300, Non-Durable Goods Manufacturing, 2,300, Accommodation and Food Services, 2,200, Health Care and Social Assistance, 2,000, Wholesale Trade, 1,800, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, 1,100, Durable Goods Manufacturing, 1,100 and Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, 1,000.
Job numbers were at an all-time high in Trade and Transportation, 978,600, the Transportation and Warehousing sector, 265,000, Financial Activities, 256,000, Professional and Business Services, 757,100, the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector, 298,400 and in the Administrative and Support Services sector, 371,400.
Initial unemployment claims were down 10,116 (37%) from October to 17,194 in November, marking the first time since November 2019 that initial claims fell below the 20,000 plateau. Initial claims were down 86,981 (84%) over the year.
