The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced that Georgia’s unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percentage points to reach 5.6 percent in December while the state saw a significant increase in the number of jobs.

Jobs in December increased by 44,700, reaching a total of 4,558,900. That number is down 81,200 compared to this same time last year. The job total listed online at EmployGeorgia has more than doubled since the beginning of the pandemic from the April 2020 listing of just 73,000 jobs.

In December, the number of employed Georgians was down 25,726 to reach a total of 4,841,339, but the number of employed was up by 561,415 since April.

Georgia’s labor force in December saw a decrease of 32,978, reaching a total of 5,127,620. However, the number is up 233,224 since the start of the pandemic in April.