The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced this week that the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January was 5.4 percent, down one-tenth of a percentage point from 5.5 percent in December. The rate was 6.3 percent in January 2015. There were 4,330,200 jobs in January, 100 more than in December, but 119,300, or 2.8 percent, more than in January of 2015.

While the number of jobs increased, the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance, a measure of new layoffs, rose by 6,311, or 13.2 percent, to 54,220 in January. Most of the rise was due to an increase in temporary claims filed in the manufacturing of textiles and transportation equipment, along with wholesale and retail trade and administrative and support services, which includes temporary employment agencies.    

The last time Georgia’s unemployment rate was 5.4 percent was in February 2008.