Georgia jobless rate steady; Columbus adds 1,000 jobs over year

Despite growth in job and labor force numbers, and lower filings for assistance, the Georgia unemployment rate showed no movement in November, remaining at 4.3 percent, the figure from October.

“We did see a significant increase in employment, which is the most important number now,” Georgia Department of Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said said in a statement. “We’ve had such a good year that it seems every month we set another series of records.”

The year-over-year job growth extended to the Columbus metro area, which has added 1,000 jobs since November of last year, giving the local area a total job count of 122,900. The metro area consists of Muscogee, Harris, Chattahoochee and Marion counties in Georgia, and Russell County in Alabama.

Other Georgia metro areas fared even better over the past year, however, with Augusta gaining 6,000 jobs, Athens picking up 4,600, Savannah seeing an increase of 2,600, Gainesville adding 2,000, and Warner Robins growing by 1,200 positions. Atlanta, naturally, was the biggest gainer, with its job count jumping by 56,000.

The state as a whole saw the number of employed residents rise month over month by nearly 6,400 to 4,871,948, which the department said is the highest ever. The state has added just over 170,000 positions over the last 12 months.

“Overall, everything is trending the way we’d like to see it go for Georgia,” Butler said.

That includes the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance statewide, which fells by about 3,000 filings to 24,364 year over year, a decrease of just over 11 percent. Such first-time claims are made by individuals being laid off and seeking financial assistance until they can land another job.

Among Georgia metro areas, Columbus saw 30 fewer initial claims in November from a year ago. Every metro area in the state experienced declines with the exceptions of Dalton, Augusta, Rome and Albany.

The department noted Georgia has added 85,200 jobs since November 2016, which is a 1.9 percent growth rate, compared to a 1.4 percent rate for the U.S. as a whole. Sectors seeing job increases were professional and business services; education and health services; trade, transportation and warehousing; and leisure and hospitality. Manufacturing is the only major area that has fewer jobs than a year ago.

The labor department will release the November unemployment rates for Georgia’s metro areas next week. The jobless rate for Columbus in October was 5.1 percent, which was up from 4.9 percent in September.

This story was originally published December 21, 2017 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Georgia jobless rate steady; Columbus adds 1,000 jobs over year."