Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Augusta saw a decrease in its unemployment rate in January.

“In January we saw the rate drop in every MSA but one,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “Starting the year off strong with such a positive indicator is promising, especially as we learn to adapt to this everchanging workforce due to COVID.”

In Augusta, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 percentage points in January, reaching 4.8 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.9 percent.

The labor force decreased in Augusta by 1,446 and ended the month with 268,689. That number is down 3,908 when compared to January of 2020.

Augusta finished the month with 255,744 employed residents.  That number decreased by 47 over the month and is down by 6,347 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Augusta ended January with 235,800 jobs. That number decreased by 4,200 from December to January and decreased by 8,900 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims went up by 12 percent in Augusta. When compared to last January, claims were up by about 102 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 5,763 active job postings in metro Augusta for January.