Georgia’s unemployment rate fell to 7.2 percent in November from a revised 7.6 percent in October, as employers hired more workers and cut fewer jobs, the state labor department said Thursday.
“This is the largest monthly rate decrease we have seen in Georgia going all the way back to 1976,” state Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a statement. “We had more jobs in November than we’ve had since the beginning of the Great Recession, and our November-to-November job growth was the largest in nine years.”
Employers added 23,400 new jobs in November, pushing the total to 4,192,600. That was the most jobs in Georgia since December 2007.
Most of the growth came in trade, transportation and warehousing, which gained 16,000 jobs primarily because of holiday hiring. Other sectors showing job gains were local government — 5,100 jobs; leisure and hospitality and financial services — 1,600 each; manufacturing — 1,100; education and health services — 1,000; personal and laundry services — 1,000; and information services — 500.
Georgia has added 98,800 jobs since November of last year when the jobless rate was 7.6 percent. That was the largest over-the-year job growth since November 2005 when 108,900 jobs were created.
Still, Georgia continues to trail the nation, which had a 5.8 percent unemployment rate in November.
“In addition to strong job growth,” Butler said, “we saw our total number of initial claims for unemployment insurance in November fall to the lowest point in more than 14 years.”
There were 28,465 new claims for unemployment insurance filed in November, the fewest since June 2000. The number of claims was down by 4,434, or 13.5 percent, from October. The claims declined in manufacturing, trade, transportation and warehousing, administrative and support services, health care and social assistance, and accommodations and food services.
Also, over the year, initial claims fell by 15.7 percent.
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