Unemployment Rates Rise Slightly in January in GA Mtns Region

The preliminary Georgia Mountains unemployment rate for January was up three-tenths to 2.6 percent.

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said initial claims for unemployment were also up 35% in January but that was still lower than a year ago.

Most of the increase in unemployment claims in Januray were in Manufacturing and Construction, but claims were down in Manufacturing and Accommodation and Food Services.

According to the Georgia Department of Labor, the labor force was up 694 to 368,446 – an all-time high for the Georgia Mountains region.

Additionally, Butler noted there are still plenty of job openings in the Georgia Mountains region, which includes, Franklin, Stephens, Hart, counties.

As of Thursday, there are 4,338 jobs posted on Employ Georgia.com.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that all 12 regional commissions in the state recorded increases in unemployment rates.

Despite this, all Regional Commissions saw the January labor force numbers rise.

Butler said even though Georgia’s workforce continues to be successfully employed in record-breaking numbers, there is still much more work to do because there’s still hundreds of thousands of jobs needing to be filled.