Georgia's unemployment rate held steady for the month of March at 3.9%, according to a Thursday morning report from the Georgia Department of Labor.
The national rate was 3.8%. A year ago, Georgia’s unemployment rate sat at 4.2%.
State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said while the jobless rate was flat, Georgia set another record in March for total jobs in the state.
"The state continues to create jobs at an impressive pace," Butler said. "We added more than 80,000 over the past 12 months. The March numbers were strong as well."
Butler said Georgia added another 1,600 jobs in March, pushing the state’s total to 4.6 million. The annual growth of 85,200 breaks down to 7,100 a month.
The greatest job growth, at 3,500, was found in leisure and hospitality.
At the same time, new claims for unemployment slipped to just 18,746 filed in March. That’s a drop of 16 percent from February. The number is down 12 percent from what was filed in March 2018.
"These are the kinds of trends I like to see," said Butler. "We’ve been adding jobs and seeing fewer layoffs consistently. Georgia’s had a great run for the past few years."
Georgia’s number of employed residents was essentially flat, falling far less than 1 percent to reach 4.9 million. That number was still up by 29,389 from the total posted in March 2018.
Georgia’s labor force followed a similar pattern by slipping far less than 1 percent. The total of 5.1 million was up by 15,731 from the total the same month a year earlier.
Job postings on EmployGeorgia.com surged in March, rising 25 percent to pass 90,000.
