The unemployment rate for the Gainesville metro last month increased a bit, but Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler says the metro did see an increase in jobs and a drop in the number of unemployment claims in August.
"Although we are seeing fewer unemployed individuals now than before the pandemic started, we are also still seeing a decreased total number of people in the workforce when compared to numbers recorded prior to the pandemic,” said Commissioner Mark Butler in his monthly area employment report. “This will continue to cause a hiring crunch until we can attract more people back to the workforce to fill the record number of job openings.”
Butler said Thursday the unemployment rate was up one-tenth of a percentage point to 2.2% from July 2021. A year ago, the rate was 4.5%.
Other data from the August report revealed:
- The labor force decreased in Gainesville by 238 and ended the month at 104,425. That number is up 5,888 when compared to August of 2020.
- Gainesville finished the month with 102,125 employed residents. That number decreased by 361 over the month and is up by 7,998 when compared to the same time a year ago.
- Gainesville ended August with 94,700 jobs. That number increased by 300 from July to August and increased by 3,000 when compared to this time last year.
- The number of unemployment claims went down by 31% in Gainesville in August. When compared to last August, claims were down by about 88%.
Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 1,697 active job postings in Gainesville for August.
