Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that the Athens March unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.9 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.5 percent.

“Across Georgia, we continue to see increases in the labor force, the number of employed, and the number of jobs,” said Commissioner Mark Butler. “With Georgia having the lowest unemployment rate of the top ten most populated states, we are pleased to see Georgians enter the workforce filling the many open positions available in all of our regions and counties.”

The labor force decreased in Athens by 135 and ended the month with 103,546. That number is up 3,604 when compared to March of 2021.

Athens finished the month with 100,502 employed residents. That number decreased by 175 over the month and is up by 4,102 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Athens number of jobs were flat over the month and up 5,900 over the year, to 100,400 in March.

The number of unemployment claims were down by 6 percent in Athens in March. When compared to last March, claims were down by about 90 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 4,351 active job postings in Athens for March.