ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate stood at 3.1% in March for the eighth consecutive month, the state Department of Labor announced Thursday.
The Peach State also had the highest labor force participation rate in the Southeast at 61.1%, while the number of jobs rose by 7,600 last month to a record high of nearly 4.9 million.
“With consistently low unemployment and jobs at an all-time high, the [labor department] is well- positioned to help Georgians during one of the most vulnerable times in their lives,” state Commissioner of Labor Bruce Thompson said.
Among job sectors, private education and health services reported a record high of 653,400 jobs, while the 515,700 leisure and hospitality jobs also was at an all-time high.
Sectors with the most gains between February and March were accommodation and food services, which gained 4,300 jobs, and the health care and social assistance sector with a gain of 3,000 jobs.
The number of employed Georgians rose for the fifth consecutive month to nearly 5.1 million. The over-the-month increase of 10,796 jobs was the most significant since March of last year.
Initial unemployment claims declined last month by 4% from February to 22,106. However, first-time jobless claims for the year were up 16%.
More than 125,000 jobs were listed online last month for Georgians to access. The industries with the most openings included health care at 28,000; accommodation and food services with 11,700; and retail trade with 11,300 openings.
Meanwhile, the labor department continued making progress on a series of improvements Thompson launched when he took office in January, including modernizing the system for processing unemployment claims to expedite the procedures and reduce fraud, and moving data to a cloud-based system to bolster security.