Georgia unemployment rate drops for first time in more than a year

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - On Thursday, state officials announced Georgia’s unemployment rate has dropped for the first time in more than a year.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson reported the unemployment rate declined from 3.2% to 3.1% from December to January, the first month-to-month drop after holding at 3.2% for each month during 2023.

“I think we’re an anomaly. That’s why if we do have the recession, and I do believe our country will experience some, we’re better positioned than most states for this,” Thompson said.

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The number of employed individuals was also up by 4,814, making the total an all-high of 5,163,147, according to the state.

“It’s a collision of policy decisions that have been made for a number of years that provide opportunity and people moving to our state,” said Thompson.

Georgia’s unemployment rate is six-tenths lower than the national unemployment rate. The job sectors with the most over-the-month job gains included local government, accommodation and food services, real estate and arts and entertainment — but jobs were down in transportation and warehousing.

Thompson said the construction industry is starving for workers.

“We’re looking at 100,000 jobs unfilled right now in those trades. That means you’re going to struggle just rebuilding a house or remodeling a house, let alone a factory and so on,” Thompson added.

Thompson told Atlanta News First he expected to see a slight uptick in unemployment, rather than the downturn that data supported.

“That was a surprise to me,” he said. “I still feel like we’re going to begin to see some softening out there.”