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Georgia’s unemployment rate drastically drops in October

ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Labor said Thursday that Georgia’s unemployment rate for October decreased by 1.8 percentage points to reach 4.5 percent.

Before the pandemic, Georgia’s unemployment rate was at an all-time low of 3.1 percent.

Georgia has seen an 8.1 percentage drop in unemployment since April when the state reported a 12.6 percent unemployment rate, Georgia’s all-time high.

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“The fact that we have so quickly reduced our unemployment rate to almost pre-pandemic levels demonstrates how strong our economy was prior to the crisis and how we are successfully recovering economically,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “We still have a lot of work to do in order for growth to continue, which includes filling the thousands of jobs that we currently have listed on EmployGeorgia. Our reemployment teams have been working with hundreds of companies across the state to assist in getting Georgians into higher paying careers.”

[Here’s how to file for unemployment if your job has been affected by coronavirus]

GDOL said in October, the number of employed Georgians was up 227,202 to reach a total of 4,859,864, and the number of employed was up by 579,940 since April.

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The Georgia Department of Labor has paid nearly $16 billion in state and federal benefits since the beginning of the pandemic in March of this year. Last week, the GDOL issued $163 million in benefits, which include regular unemployment and federally funded Lost Wages Assistance supplements, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, and State Extended Benefits.

Since week ending March 21, 4,050,224 regular UI initial claims have been processed, more than the last nine years combined 3.8 million.

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The sectors with the most weekly regular UI initial claims processed included Accommodation and Food Services, 4,155, Health Care and Social Assistance, 2,863, Administrative and Support Services, 2,258, Manufacturing, 1,763, and Retail Trade, 1,477.

For more information on jobs and current labor force date, visit the Georgia Labor Force Market Explorer to view a comprehensive report.