Georgia Hits Historically Low Unemployment Rate

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Georgia hit an all-time low unemployment rate for December 2021 of 2.6 percent, dropping two-tenths of a point from November’s rate of 2.8 percent.

The national December 2021 unemployment rate was down three-tenths to 3.9 percent.

Additionally, in December initial claims for unemployment benefits were down 2% from November marking the lowest monthly total since June 1974.

Initial unemployment claims were down 86% over the year.

Butler partnered with state officials during the pandemic to make decisions for Georgians that led to quicker economic recovery helping Georgia businesses to bring employees back to work more successfully.

Those strategies included discontinuing federal unemployment in June 2021, and tighter rules for collecting State unemployment.

Butler said making critical decisions early in the pandemic has allowed Georgians to get back to work quicker and allow business owners to provide the goods and services Georgia needed for our economy to rapidly recover.

Georgia’s November rate of 2.8 percent, and now all-time low rate of 2.6 percent in December, greatly outperforms other states who imposed much stricter guidelines for businesses during the pandemic.

New Jersey’s and New York’s unemployment rate of 6.6 percent during November 2021 is two and a half times that of the Peach State.

And Nevada is still under an indoor mask mandate in most counties and ranked 50th nationally with an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent, right above California’s rate of 6.9 percent.

In December, Butler said seven industries saw job growth of more than a thousand employees.

Currently, there are still over 200,000 jobs listed online at EmployGeorgia.com, resulting in a minimum of over 305,000 unfilled positions.

Employers with over a thousand job postings included United Health Group, 2,200, Home Depot, 1,700, Amazon 1,500, Wellstar Health System, 1,400, Walmart, 1,200, and Marriott International, 1,200.

Market salaries for the jobs listed on Employ Georgia range from $23,000 to $105,000, showing a median salary of $44,000.

GDOL’s Career Centers are providing in-person employment services by appointment. Job seekers can reach out to their local career centers at https://dol.georgia.gov/locations/career-center for assistance.