Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Atlanta saw a decrease in its unemployment rate in January. 

“In January we saw the rate drop in every MSA but one,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “Starting the year off strong with such a positive indicator is promising, especially as we learn to adapt to this everchanging workforce due to COVID.” 

In Atlanta, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.7 percentage points in January, reaching 5.1 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.4 percent.

The labor force decreased in Atlanta by 30,700 and ended the month with 3,061,960. That number is down 76,707 when compared to January of 2020.

Atlanta finished the month with 2,904,922 employed residents.  That number decreased by 9,299 over the month and is down by 127,390 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Atlanta ended January with 2,697,300 jobs. That number decreased by 44,300 from December to January and decreased by 161,100 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims went up by 6 percent in Atlanta. When compared to last January, claims were up by about 300 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 75,000 active job postings in metro Atlanta for January.