“The Department of Labor has had an image problem,” newly elected Commissioner of Labor Bruce Thompson told members of the state House and Senate Appropriations committees just six days after taking the oath of office. “We seek to be able to change that.”

Thompson, formerly a state senator who represented Bartow County, is beginning his new job just two weeks after the Georgia Office of Inspector General reported nearly 300 state employees erroneously received unemployment benefits totaling $6.7 million during the last two pandemic years, averaging $23,700 per worker.

The new labor commissioner has hired a former prosecutor to get to the bottom of what happened with the theft by the state employees.

Thompson has also pledged to eliminate the Georgia Department of Labor’s backlog of about 59,000 pending unemployment claims by August.