Peach Tree Times

Georgia added 43,600 new jobs during July, the state Department of Labor said – continuing a trend that has seen the state’s summer job boom continue even as the COVID-19 Delta variant continues to wreak havoc across the country.

The summer jobs surge continues even as the state moved in late June to end distribution of federal supplements to unemployment benefits that critics of the system have insisted have only served to deter people from returning to the workforce, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"By remaining open for business and working alongside local economic development partners and private sector business leaders, we've been able to create greater opportunities for hardworking Georgians and prioritize attracting key industries that bring quality jobs and investments to every corner of the Peach State," Gov. Brian Kemp said in a release.

The Department of Labor reported the state’s unemployment rate dropped in July to 3.7%, down from 4% in June, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The decline represented the sharpest fall since March and leaves the rate just 0.2 percentage points higher than what it was in February of 2020, when the virus first slammed Georgia.

The Atlanta metro region alone was responsible for an increase of 18,500 jobs, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The job growth was fueled by hiring in restaurants, bars and hospitality, the Department of Labor said. 

While there are fewer jobs since the beginning of the pandemic, the unemployment rate in Atlanta dropped to 3.2% in July, down from 4.5% in June, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said.                                                 

With data showing some parts of the state’s economy now have more jobs than they had before the pandemic (trade, transportation and utilities), Emory University finance professor Tom Smith told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “Georgia continues to recover very well.”

And while the restaurants and hotels sectors haven’t rebounded as quickly, both industries showed signs of recovery in June by adding upwards of 15,000 jobs, the newspaper said.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler told the newspaper that state job listings are at least as much as three times greater than they were before the virus hit.

Butler predicted that to get more workers back in the mix, employers will almost certainly have to continue raising pay, ultimately leading to higher prices for consumers. He added that enhanced pandemic-inspired federal unemployment benefits had led to more people staying at home.

Wells Fargo economists noted that the state’s new job creation in both June and July were higher than any other month since June of 2020, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said. A number of Georgia employers said they have been forced to increase pay and bonuses to retain workers or attract new ones.  

Area Development named Georgia the top state in which to do business in 2020, noting that the state had the lowest cost to do business. It was the seventh consecutive time that Georgia topped the list, Area Development said. Georgia was also first in giving incentives for doing business in the state, such as tax credits for job creation and R&D investments, Area Development said..