Atlanta, GA – The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced today that Georgia’s unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percentage points in January to reach 5.1 percent and has decreased 7.4 percentage points since the start of the pandemic. Georgia’s January unemployment rate was 1.2 percent lower than the national unemployment rate.

“In our first month of 2021, we saw the unemployment rate continue to drop signifying Georgia is pushing through this pandemic,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “I look forward to getting more Georgians back to work, filling the more than 200,000 available job listings on EmployGeorgia.”

The job total listed online at EmployGeorgia has nearly tripled since the beginning of the pandemic from the April 2020 listing of just 73,000 jobs. Of the over 205,000 jobs currently listed on EmployGeorgia, over half of them advertise annual salaries over $40,000. In many cases, employers are willing to train quality candidates and assist with attainment of additional credentials.

In January, the number of employed Georgians was up 24,705 to reach a total of 4,853,894, and the number of employed was up by 489,000 since April.

Georgia’s labor force in January saw an increase of 12,171 to reach a total of 5,112,468. That number is also up 126,000 since the start of the pandemic in April.

Jobs in January decreased by 1,700, reaching a total of 4,448,100. That number is down 215,100 compared to this same time last year.

In January, initial unemployment claims increased by 5 percent (6,141) since December to reach 130,426. Claims were up by 184 percent (84,445) over the year.

Resources for reemployment assistance along with Information on filing an unemployment claim and details on how employers can file partial claims can be found on the agency’s webpage at dol.georgia.gov.

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