The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced recently that Georgia’s unemployment rate for October decreased by 1.8 percentage points to reach 4.5 percent. The unemployment rate in Chattooga County has also plummeted over the past month.

Prior to the pandemic, Georgia’s unemployment rate was at an all-time low of 3.1 percent. Georgia has seen an 8.1 percentage drop in unemployment since April when the state reported a 12.6 percent unemployment rate, Georgia’s all-time high.

“The fact that we have so quickly reduced our unemployment rate to almost pre-pandemic levels demonstrates how strong our economy was prior to the crisis and how we are successfully recovering economically,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “We still have a lot of work to do in order for growth to continue, which includes filling the thousands of jobs that we currently have listed on EmployGeorgia. Our reemployment teams have been working with hundreds of companies across the state to assist in getting Georgians into higher paying careers.”

Chattooga County’s unemployment numbers showed the most dramatic drop in Northwest Georgia for October.  The September unemployment rate in Chattooga County was 6.5% and dropped to 4.6% for October.