Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Columbus saw positive over-the-month measures in almost every key indicator in March.

“We had another strong month in March,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “We saw the unemployment rate drop in every single MSA, along with an increase in jobs across the state and most importantly, a decrease in over-the-year initial claims for every MSA.”   

In Columbus, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points in March, reaching 4.5 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.9 percent.

The labor force increased in Athens by 261 and ended the month with 123,010. That number is down 2,164 when compared to March of 2020.

Columbus finished the month with 117,517 employed residents.  That number increased by 781 over the month and is down by 2,741 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Columbus ended March with 117,400 jobs. That number increased by 600 from February to March and decreased by 6,000 when compared to this time last year.

  The number of unemployment claims went up by 18 percent in Columbus. When compared to last March, claims were down by about 44 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 3,971 active job postings in metro Columbus for March.