Unemployment data shows a Georgia job market that’s still hot but leveling off.
The state’s unemployment rate ticked up to 2.9% in October after three months at an all-time low of 2.8%. And while employers are still adding workers to payrolls, those gains may be slowing.
The jobless rate remained below a year ago, when 3.4% of Georgia workers were unemployed. But the labor force fell for the fourth straight month, while the number of people reporting they had a job fell for the third straight month. The number of Georgians unemployed and seeking work crept up to 152,000 after two months of ultra-low readings below 150,000.
It was the first increase in Georgia’s jobless rate since hitting an all-time high of 12.3% at the start of the pandemic in April 2020.
The number of workers on employer payrolls — the top labor market measure for many economists — rose by 3,000 in Georgia in July, reaching 4.84 million. That’s 204,000 above payroll levels last year.
