Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Athens saw positive over-the-month measures in every key indicator in April.

“We had another strong month in April,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “We saw the unemployment rate decrease in almost every MSA, along with an over the month and over the year decrease in initial claims for every MSA.”   

In Athens, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percentage points in April, reaching 3.1 percent. A year ago, the rate was 11.2 percent.

The labor force increased in Athens by 398 and ended the month with 98,934. That number is up 4,362 when compared to April of 2020.

Athens finished the month with 95,828 employed residents.  That number increased by 617 over the month and is up by 11,824 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Athens ended April with 92,800 jobs. That number increased by 500 from March to April and increased by 8,200 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims went down by 21 percent in Athens. When compared to last April, claims were down by about 93 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 2,594 active job postings in metro Athens for April.