Georgia’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 7.3 percent in January from 7.4 percent in December as employers laid off fewer workers than they normally do after the holiday season, the state labor department said Thursday.
“This is the seventh consecutive month that the unemployment rate has declined,” state Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a statement. “The rate fell because 15,928 more Georgians were employed and the number of new layoffs for January fell to the lowest level in eight years.”
There were 58,091 new claims for unemployment insurance in January — a drop of 11.8 percent from December. That was the smallest number of claims in January since 2006, when 53,680 claims were filed.
Most of the decline in new claims came in manufacturing, accommodations and food services, construction, and administrative and support services.
The number of jobs decreased to 4,032,000 in January — down 1.4 percent, or 56,200, from December. But that job loss was significantly less than the average January job loss of 76,300 for the last five years.
This January’s losses came across-the-board — in trade, transportation, and warehousing; professional and business services; government; leisure and hospitality; construction; education and health care; financial services; and manufacturing.
“While we had the traditional December to January job loss, Georgia actually had 80,800 more jobs than in January a year ago, which is a strong gain,” Butler said.
Most job sectors showed gains over the past year, driving down the unemployment rate from 8.6 percent in January 2013. There were annual increases in trade, transportation and warehousing — 25,200 jobs; leisure and hospitality — 20,400; professional and business services — 16,600; education and health care — 9,500; construction — 6,900; and financial services — 4,900.
Meanwhile, government lost 9,600 jobs during the past year.
Georgia’s unemployment rate still trails the national rate, currently 6.6 percent.
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