According to a report released Thursday morning, unemployment numbers were somewhat of a mixed bag for Georgia during the month of March.
State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in the report that Georgia continued to set some records, even though the number of jobs dipped slightly.
Butler noted that most of the March news was good: unemployment held steady, the labor force and number of Georgians with jobs set records and unemployment claims were down. However, the number of jobs in the state fell by 7,400 after averaging increasing by around 6,700 jobs a month throughout 2017.
“Although we did see a slight decline in the total number of jobs,” Butler said, “the good news is we saw over 14,000 Georgians gain employment.”
Butler said one issue that continues to worry employers is the lack of available workers to fill jobs that are available.
Nationally, the unemployment rate stayed at 4.1 percent in March. Georgia’s rate remained at 4.4 percent. A year ago, Georgia’s unemployment rate sat at 5 percent.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s number of residents with jobs reached an all-time high, just under 5 million. That number increased by nearly 15,000 last month and more than 125,000 over the past 12 months.
The state also set a record for labor force, the number of people employed and those seeking jobs, at 5.1 million. The number climbed by about 13,000 for the month and was up by nearly 100,000 over the past 12 months.
“The increasing labor force and the strong gains in employment continue to show the strength of Georgia’s job market,” Butler said.
Statewide, there were just 21,288 unemployment claims filed in March. That was down 4 percent when compared to last month and down about 15 percent from last March. In fact, the March number of claims was the lowest filed since May 1998.
Georgia’s job performance was similar to the nation’s. Job growth nationally was just .1 percent in March as compared to 1.5 percent for the year.
Georgia showed a modest job loss in hospitality, information, professional/business services, and manufacturing. Trade/transportation/utilities and education/health services both increased slightly. Even with the small loss last month, the March 2018 number was up by 65,200 over a year ago.
Employ Georgia, the GDOL's online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed 65,173 new active job postings in Georgia for March.
