General

Initial Unemployment Claims

Preliminary initial unemployment claims for the week ended October 30th were 36,638, which is down 7,057 claims, or -16%, from the revised initial unemployment claims number of 43,695 for the previous week, ending October 23rd.

This is a significant change from last week. Overall, claims have been steadily declining since May 9th, but the decline appeared to have been slowing down over the past several weeks until now.

The highest weekly claims were filed the week ended April 4th, at 390,130. Just three weeks earlier, claims were at 5,447 for the week ended March 14th.

Insured Unemployment

Preliminary insured unemployment for the week ended October 23rd was at 303,591. This is down 33,147 from the previous week’s revised insured unemployment number of 336,738 for the week ended October 16th, a 10% decrease.

Insured unemployment is also referred to as continued claims, which occur when an individual has already previously filed an initial claim, experienced another week of unemployment, and is now filing a continued claim to claim benefits for that week of unemployment.

By Industry

Most Improved Industries this Week

The industries in Georgia are said to improving when they see declines in initial unemployment claims since last week. The following are the most improved since last week:

• Transportation and Warehousing: 1,086 less new claims (a 39% decrease since last week).
• Accommodation and Food Services: 1,014 less new claims (an 11% decrease since last week).
• Manufacturing: 1,332 less new claims (a 29% decrease since last week).

Most Declining Industries this Week

The industries with the largest increases in weekly initial unemployment claims are said to be declining.

• Retail Trade: 174 more new claims (a 5% increase since last week)
• Utilities: 12 more new claims (a 100% increase since last week)
• Public Administration: 79 more new claims (a 20% increase since last week)

Overall, the magnitude of the increases in new claims is significantly lower than what has been seen for the majority of this year, with increases in new claims typically being in the thousands. Overwhelmingly, most industries saw major decreases in new claims this week and the above increases in new claims are relatively insignificant.