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Georgia’s Unemployment Claims Decrease in May

The number of people filing unemployment claims in Georgia decreased again in May.

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler’s office released the numbers this week. In addition, Butler says the state added jobs during the month, while the unemployment rate held steady. He says Georgia continues to create jobs.

“I think it’s been a pretty impressive pace of job creation over the last several years, we actually had a record number postings during the month of May,” Butler said.

He says new job seekers should have plenty of opportunities.

“What we’re going to see coming this summer as we see a lot of new college grads and high school grads and some of our technical college graduates out there hitting the job market, they’re going to see a lot of job openings,” according to Butler. “So we expect to see some good growth in employment, good growth in the number of individuals in the workforce, which could also help spur more job growth.”

The one downside the commissioner says the state is experiencing is the effort to keep the labor force up.

“If you don’t have enough individuals have to fill the jobs you have, you’ll actually start seeing the job growth slow down as employers get frustrated. We’re hoping to see that as soon these graduates hit the ground this summer we’re going to start seeing those numbers change and trend in the right direction.”

Department of Labor
State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler.

Nationally, the unemployment rate also held constant, staying at 3.6 percent in May. Georgia’s rate maintained at 3.8 percent.  A year ago, Georgia’s unemployment rate sat at 4 percent.

Butler urges both job seekers looking for jobs and employers looking to post positions, to use the department’s job listing service, employgeorgia.com.

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