ATLANTA (AP) - Workers are returning to the labor force in Georgia more rapidly than employers are adding jobs, driving up the state’s unemployment rate.
Georgia’s jobless rate rose to 5.7% in November from 4.5% in September, according to figures released Thursday by the state Department of Labor. The unemployment rate has been unusually volatile since layoffs driven by the coronavirus pandemic began in March, moving up or down by more than 1 percentage point a month in seven of the last nine months. Those are huge swings for a measure that usually moves by much less.
Georgia’s labor force rose by 80,000 to an all-time high of nearly 5.2 million in November, but the number of people reporting actually having a job rose by much less, pushing the number of unemployed Georgians above 296,000.
The nationwide unemployment rate in November was 6.7%, down from 6.9% in October.
A separate survey of employer payrolls - the top indicator for economists - also showed a slowing employment rebound. Georgia businesses hired an additional 20,000 people in November, boosting business employment to about 4.49 million people, but it was the smallest gain in any month since payroll numbers began rising again. Employer payrolls have recovered much of what they lost earlier this year, but remain about 137,000 jobs below the all-time record high in February.
More than 300,000 Georgians are collecting special federal unemployment benefits that will expire at the end of the month unless Congress acts to extend them. Such an extension is part of a $900 billion relief package that Congress is hammering out.
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