ATLANTA — Georgia’s unemployment rate fell to an all-time low of 2.8% in November, according to the state. It is the first time the jobless measure has dipped below 3% since current records began in 1976.
The state Department of Labor also said Thursday that a record number of individuals reported having a job in Georgia in November, rising to more than 5 million. The previous high came in January 2020.
The unemployment rate had hit a previous record low in October at 3.1%. Georgia’s jobless rate has fallen every month since hitting an all-time high of 12.5% at the start of the pandemic in April 2020.
Unemployment rates are calculated as a percentage of people considered part of the workforce actively searching for unemployment who cannot find it. If they stop searching, they're no longer counted. This is how the national unemployment rate is calculated, as well.
In September, Georgia said more than 7,700 workers found jobs while 6,000 dropped out of the labor force, resulting in a nearly 14,000 decrease in the number of residents officially considered unemployed.