State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said that Georgia added more than 20,000 jobs in June, pushing the state to a new record high.

Butler also noted that preliminary numbers showed year-over-year gains in employment and workforce. At the same time, claims for unemployment insurance were near record lows. 

“The numbers for June are very impressive,” Butler said. “We set yet another record for jobs, passing 4.6 million. Fewer people filed unemployment claims and our number of employed residents is climbing. There’s plenty to be encouraged about in the June report.”

Nationally, the unemployment rate inched up 0.1 percent points in June to reach 3.7 percent. Georgia’s rate dropped 0.1 percentage points to settle at 3.7 percent.  A year ago, Georgia’s unemployment rate sat at 3.9 percent.

Meanwhile, Georgia added 20,200 jobs in June, pushing the total to 4.61 million jobs – a new record for the state. That number is up more than 80,000 from the same time last year.

Georgia had four job sectors that added more than 2,000 jobs in June:

    Education/health services, 3,600
    Information, 2,900
    Professional/business services, 2,700
    Leisure/hospitality, 2,200.

In terms of annual change, education/health services, professional/business services, leisure/hospitality and construction and all added 10,000 or more jobs.

In June, the number of employed residents went up for the first time in four months. The gain of 2,175 in June brought Georgia’s number of employed to 4.91 million. 

Georgia’s labor force slipped again in June, dropping by less than 1,500 versus a total work force of more than 5.1 million. And, even with the monthly loss, the labor force total was still higher than the same month a year ago.

At the same time, fewer residents were filing new claims for unemployment. The total number of claims filed in June, at 18,410, was the second lowest filed in the past 45 years.

New claims for unemployment were down by about 11 percent compared with last month.  When compared to June of 2018, claims were down by 16 percent.   

In June, EmployGeorgia.com noted just under 80,000 job postings.