The Georgia Department of Labor announced today that Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November was 7.2 percent. This is a significant drop from the previously released preliminary rate of 7.7 percent in October, which has been revised to 7.6 percent. The rate in November of last year was also 7.6 percent.

“This is the largest monthly rate decrease we have seen in Georgia going all the way back to 1976,” said State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler. “Our rate continues to trend downward as our state’s employers create new jobs and lay off fewer workers. In fact, we had more jobs in November than we’ve had since the beginning of the Great Recession, and our November-to-November job growth was the largest in nine years.”

Employers added 23,400 new jobs in November, pushing the total to 4,192,600, up 0.6 percent from 4,169,200 in October. This is the most jobs in Georgia since December 2007 when there were 4,202,100. Most of the growth came in trade, transportation and warehousing, which gained 16,000 jobs primarily because of holiday hiring. Other sectors showing job gains are local government, 5,100; leisure and hospitality and financial services, 1,600 each; manufacturing, 1,100; education and health services, 1,000; personal and laundry services, 1,000; and information services, 500.

Georgia has added 98,800 jobs since November of last year, up from 4,093,800, a 2.4 percent growth rate. This was the largest over-the-year job growth since November 2005 when 108,900 jobs were created. Private industry accounted for 96 percent of the growth with 95,000 new jobs. The over-the-year job gains were in trade, transportation and warehousing, 29,100; professional and business services, 26,900; leisure and hospitality, 17,500; manufacturing, 7,800; education and health services, 5,800; government, 3,800; construction, 3,200; information services, 3,100; and financial services, 1,100.

“In addition to strong job growth that has made Georgia a leading state in job creation for several months, we saw our total number of initial claims for unemployment insurance in November fall to the lowest point in more than 14 years,” said Butler.

There were 28,465 new claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed in November, the fewest since June 2000 when there were 27,538 claims. The number of claims was down by 4,434, or 13.5 percent, from 32,899 filed in October. The claims were down in manufacturing, trade, transportation and warehousing, administrative and support services, health care and social assistance, and accommodations and food services.

Also, over the year, initial claims were down by 15.7 percent. There were 5,316 fewer claims filed than the 33,781 in November 2013. The over-the-year declines were in the same types of industries as the monthly declines.