State Labor Commissioner Recaps Record-Breaking 2019 For Georgia

Caption

Georgia ended 2019 with a record-high 4.97 million employed residents, an increase of nearly 47,000 over the past 12 months.

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler says 2019 was another banner year for Georgia with increases in jobs, workforce and employed residents. 

Year-end numbers in all three categories were record highs. At the same time, the December unemployment rate was another record low. 

“Georgia closed out 2019 on a very high note,” Butler said. “We set records right across the board on all the major indicators.  It’s kind of hard to have any better year than Georgia had.”

The unemployment rate settled at 3.2% as 2019 came to a close, which is down from 3.7 percent in 2018.

RELATED: Atlanta Unemployment Rate Reaches Low While Many Work Multiple Jobs

Georgia ended 2019 setting a record for total number of jobs at 4.65 million. The state added just under 70,000 over the past 12 months.

Some job sectors were particularly strong in 2019, the commissioner noted. The state added more than 10,000 jobs in three sectors:

• Education, health services – 25,400
• Leisure, hospitality – 16,600
• Trade, transportation, utilities – 10,400.

Georgia ended 2019 with a record high 4.97 million employed residents. That’s an increase of nearly 47,000 over the past 12 months.

Butler says the challenge in 2020 will be to keep growing Georgia's labor force, which is lagging the pace of job creation.

“We do need our labor force to expand at a faster pace,” Butler said. “Right now, we are growing jobs three times as fast.”