The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced Thursday that it has processed over 2.7 million regular unemployment insurance claims in the past 14 weeks, more than the last seven years combined. Of the claims filed, over one million were identified as valid claims, and 91% of claimants were issued payments.
The GDOL released jobs numbers for all metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and regions, revealing that the unemployment rate was down and employment rates were higher across the state. Weekly regular UI initial claims totaled 125,725, down 6,272 over the week ending June 20. Georgia also ranked 1st in the South Region and 15th nationally for lowest unemployment rate of 9.7% in May of 2020, based on seasonally adjusted numbers. It ranked 6th out of 8 in the South Region and 30th (out of 53—including Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., and the Virgin Islands) in the nation with percentage change in employment of 1.9 percent from April to May.
“These positive indicators are promising for Georgia’s job market,” said Commissioner Mark Butler. “The significant drop in the unemployment rate in our MSAs and regions certainly suggests a rebound in our future.”
The GDOL also announced that $6,912,337,130 in state and federal benefits have been paid to claimants across the state during the past 14 weeks. This includes payments in regular state UI, Pandemic Extended Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC).
As of June 23, the Georgia Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund Balance was $1,196,154,059 down $1.351 billion, or 53 percent, from the 3/24/2020 balance of $2,547,476,454.