Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Columbus saw a decrease in its unemployment rate in January.

“In January we saw the rate drop in every MSA but one,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “Starting the year off strong with such a positive indicator is promising, especially as we learn to adapt to this everchanging workforce due to COVID.”

In Columbus, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 percentage points in January, reaching 5.4 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.1 percent.

The labor force decreased in Columbus by 736 and ended the month with 122,079. That number is down 2,812 when compared to January of 2020.

Columbus finished the month with 115,460 employed residents.  That number decreased by 117 over the month and is down by 4,352 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Columbus ended January with 116,200 jobs. That number decreased by 1,700 from December to January and decreased by 6,500 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims were down by about 13 percent over the month. When compared to last January, claims were up by about 134 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 3,388 active job postings in metro Columbus for January.