Georgia’s Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate Drops

More good news for Georgia’s economy.
Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December was 6.9 percent.
That’s down from 7.2 percent in November.
The rate declined as holiday hiring boosted Georgia’s job total to just over 4.1 million.
That’s the highest level since the beginning of the recession in December 2007.
Additionally, state employers added hundreds of new jobs in December.
State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler calls it the best news in some time.
“Well, we saw the state gain 900 jobs last month, which doesn’t seem like a lot. However, when we take a look back, historically, especially over the last three years, we’ve been averaging 10,000 jobs lost over the month. So, to actually see us gain 900 jobs in a time period where we normally loose is very good news.”
Butler said over-the-year job growth was also strong.
Georgia added 108,200 jobs since December of 2013, with private industry accounting for 98.5 percent of the growth.
“We had a very strong job growth over the year. 2.7% percent job growth over the last 12 months, which is 108,000 more jobs today than we had this same time last year. We saw over a 5% job growth in business and professional services, and most importantly, one are that we keep a very close eye on, construction, which saw over a 3% job growth over the year.”
Butler believes growth in the construction industry will continue to grow stronger over the next 12 months as well.
Despite all the good news in December, first-time claims for unemployment benefits did go up.
Overall, new unemployment claims, including seasonal and other layoffs, were up by 102 percent from November, but Butler said it is nothing to be concerned about.
“We did see a significant increase in initial claims last month, but it’s not anything to be concerned about. Most initial claims, as a matter of fact right at 50% last month, were what they call partial claims, which are individuals that are temporarily laid off. Say for example, in manufacturing where a plant closes down for a week or two weeks for maintenance.. Most of those individuals have actually gone back to work.
The local unemployment numbers will come out next week.