In a press release put out on Thursday, May 28th, the Georgia Department of Labor announced that the spike in unemployment in Northeast Georgia during April resulted in the highest unemployment rate the region has ever seen. The new unemployment rate of 11.6 percent is a 7.3 percent increase from the number last year, when the rate was reported to be about 3 percent.
Mark Butler, the Georgia Commissioner of Labor said in the release that, “Although we are seeing all-time high unemployment rates across a majority of the state, we are continuing to work with employers on effective strategies to get Georgians back to work in both a safe and economically efficient way.”
The focus on safety is clearly in relation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the reason that unemployment has increased so dramatically. “The number of unemployment claims dramatically increased by 315 percent in April due to COVID-19 lay-offs,” the release continues, “When compared to last April, claims were up by about 8,245 percent.”