The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced that Georgia’s unemployment rate for October decreased by 1.8 percentage points to reach 4.5 percent. Prior to the pandemic, Georgia’s unemployment rate was at an all-time low of 3.1 percent. Georgia has seen an 8.1 percentage drop in unemployment since April when the state reported a 12.6 percent unemployment rate, Georgia’s all-time high.  

“The fact that we have so quickly reduced our unemployment rate to almost pre-pandemic levels demonstrates how strong our economy was prior to the crisis and how we are successfully recovering economically,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “We still have a lot of work to do in order for growth to continue, which includes filling the thousands of jobs that we currently have listed on EmployGeorgia. Our reemployment teams have been working with hundreds of companies across the state to assist in getting Georgians into higher paying careers.”

Of the over 162,000 jobs currently listed on EmployGeorgia, over half of them advertise annual salaries over $40,000.  In many cases, employers are willing to train quality candidates and assist with credential attainment.  Top employers include Wellstar Health System, DeKalb Medical Group, Emory Healthcare, Anthem Blue Cross, and Intuit Software. Top industries include health care, transportation and warehousing, professional, scientific, and technical services, finance and insurance, and manufacturing. Employers are searching for health practitioners, such as registered nurses ($45/hour) and physicians, management positions, such as medical and health service managers, computer and mathematical professionals, such as software developers ($86/hour) and computer system engineers ($100/hour), transportation and material moving operators, such as heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers ($38-72/hour), business and financial operations managers, such as accountants and management analysts ($25+/hour).

The GDOL Business Services Unit has coordinated virtual hiring events across the state with employers from a range of industries.  The GDOL is currently working with SK Battery America in Commerce, GA, Robins AFB in Warner Robins, GA, Biolife in Social Circle, GA, Ingevity in Waynesboro, GA, Chick Fil A in Cartersville, GA, Shaw Industries and Mohawk from Calhoun, Adairsville, and Cartersville, Vista Metals, F & P, VTI, Midian Roofing, and many more. 

The GDOL is planning an upcoming single employer multi-state event with Sitel for virtual and in person opportunities in GA, TN, SC, NC. The GDOL recently participated in another multistate virtual job fair with 1456 attendees and 13 employers. Follow EmployGeorgia Facebook for updates and announcements.

In October, the number of employed Georgians was up 227,202 to reach a total of 4,859,864, and the number of employed was up by 579,940 since April. 

Georgia’s labor force in October saw an increase of 145,120, totaling 5,091,317. That number is also up 196,921 since the start of the pandemic in April. In October, initial unemployment claims decreased by 3 percent (5,124) since September to reach 196,666. 

Jobs in October increased by 25,000, reaching a total of 4,493,500. That number is down 136,600 compared to this same time last year. The job total listed online at EmployGeorgia has more than doubled since the beginning of the pandemic from the April 2020 listing of just 73,000 jobs.

The Georgia Department of Labor has paid nearly $16 billion in state and federal benefits since the beginning of the pandemic in March of this year. Last week, the GDOL issued $163 million in benefits, which include regular unemployment and federally funded Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) supplements, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), and State Extended Benefits. 

Since week ending March 21, 2020, 4,050,224 regular UI initial claims have been processed, more than the last nine years combined (3.8 million). 

The number of initial unemployment claims filed throughout the United States for the week ending November 14 was 742,000, an increase of 31,000 from the previous week's revised level of 711,000.

The sectors with the most weekly regular UI initial claims processed included Accommodation and Food Services, 4,155, Health Care and Social Assistance, 2,863, Administrative and Support Services, 2,258, Manufacturing, 1,763, and Retail Trade, 1,477.

Resources for reemployment assistance along with Information on filing an unemployment claim and details on how employers can file partial claims can be found on the agency's webpage at dol.georgia.gov.

For more information on jobs and current labor force date, visit the Georgia Labor Force Market Explorer at www.explorer.gdol.ga.gov to view a comprehensive report.