Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Athens 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 Athens, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.6 percentage points in January, reaching 4.2 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.3 percent.

The labor force decreased in Athens by 320 and ended the month with 97,843. That number is down 4,090 when compared to January of 2020.

Athens finished the month with 93,710 employed residents.  That number increased by 237 over the month and is down by 4,857 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Athens ended January with 91,400 jobs. That number decreased by 2,000 from December to January and decreased by 6,500 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims were down by about 2 percent over the month. When compared to last January, claims were up by about 395 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 2,186 active job postings in metro Athens for January.