Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Bartow County recorded an unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, up six-tenths of a percent over the month.  A year ago, the rate was 4.8 percent. Despite this, Bartow County saw all-time highs in the labor force and the number of employed for the month of January.

 

“Even though we continue to see Georgia’s workforce be successfully employed in record-breaking numbers, there is still much more work to do as we continue to see hundreds of thousands of jobs needed to be filled,” said Commissioner Mark Butler.

 

The labor force increased in January by 474 to 52,542, an all-time high. That number is up 1,604 over-the-year.

 

Bartow County ended January with an all-time high of 50,862 employed residents. The number increased by 153 in January and was up 2,352 as compared to last year.

 

Initial claims for unemployment went up by 217 percent in January. When compared to last January, claims were down about 70 percent.

 

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed 589 active job postings in Bartow County for January.