Economists say it was the steepest, deepest and shortest recession on record. During the first two months of the pandemic, Georgia’s economy hemorrhaged more than 600,000 jobs.
But since then, the economy has been steadily making up ground and is about 135,500 jobs shy of its pre-pandemic level, according to the most recent government data.
In addition, initial jobless claims in Georgia dropped last week to their lowest level since mid-March 2020, a sign that the economy is continuing to steadily improve.
The state Department of Labor has processed more than 4.9 million claims since the pandemic started, about 40% of them judged to be valid. During the worst week of shutdowns, officials processed 390,000 claims.
Last week, the labor department processed 11,985 claims, down modestly from the previous week. It was the lowest weekly total since the early weeks of the pandemic.
National claims were also down last week, according to the Employment and Training Administration.
Though the delta variant of the coronavirus has caused a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, hiring has remained steady. The need for workers has been intense enough to spur higher wages and various incentives aimed at getting people off the sidelines and into jobs.
Earlier this month, MAU Workforce Solutions held an Atlanta job fair in search of warehouse workers, paying up to $18 an hour to start and offering some workers a $1,000 bonus for taking a job.
Average Georgia weekly jobless claims
January: 31,928
February: 28,188
March: 28,436
April: 33,288
May: 25,853
June: 21,553
July: 14,707
Worst week, pre-pandemic: 41,522
Worst week, pandemic: 390,132
Average week, pre-pandemic: 5,548
Last week 11,985
Sources: Georgia Department of Labor, U.S. Employment and Training Administration
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