Chattooga County saw a huge spike in unemployment claims in December of 2022.  Numbers from the Georgia Department of Labor were released on Thursday.

In November of 2022, Chattooga County had 192 first-time unemployment claims.  That number more than doubled in December of last year when 401 first-time unemployment claims were filed by Chattooga County residents.

A year ago, in 2021, there were only 42 first-time unemployment claims filed in December.

The statewide unemployment percentage actually dropped last month according to Georgia Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson.

Thompson announced yesterday that Georgia’s December unemployment rate was 3 percent, unchanged from a revised 3 percent in November. Additionally, job numbers reached another all-time high, increasing by almost 6,000 from November. Georgia’s unemployment rate was five-tenths of a percent lower than the national December 2022 unemployment rate of 3.5 percent.