Georgia unemployment claims decrease once again

Hiring has been picking up and jobless claims have declined. Here, a Gwinnett County Public Schools bus sits outside the Gwinnett Place mass COVID-19 vaccination site earlier this month.

Credit: Vanessa McCray

Credit: Vanessa McCray

Hiring has been picking up and jobless claims have declined. Here, a Gwinnett County Public Schools bus sits outside the Gwinnett Place mass COVID-19 vaccination site earlier this month.

Georgia jobless claims dropped 11% last week, following a national trend.

The state Department of Labor processed 28,764 initial claims, which is about 27% fewer than a month ago, officials said.

Nationally, about 575,000 people filed first-time claims for state unemployment benefits last week, a slight decrease from the previous week, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

The U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday that the nation’s economy had surged at a 6.4% pace in the first three months of the year, fueled by consumer spending as the vaccine rollouts lured many people out of their homes.

Georgia hiring has been strong, and many businesses are complaining that they are having trouble finding workers. More than 240,000 positions are listed on the state’s job site.

Among those hiring in metro Atlanta:


Georgia new jobless claims

Average week, pre-pandemic: 5,548

Worst week, pre-pandemic: 41,522 (Jan. 10, 2009)

Worst week, pandemic: 390,132 (April 4, 2020)

Average, first four weeks of April 2021: 33,288

Last week: 28,764

Total, since mid-March 2020: 4.7 million

Source: Georgia Department of Labor

__________________________________