General

Initial Unemployment Claims

Preliminary initial unemployment claims for the week ended November 6th were 23,126, which is down 14,127 claims, or -38%, from the revised initial unemployment claims number of 37,253 for the previous week, ending October 30th.

This is a significant change from last week. Overall, claims have been steadily declining since May 9th.

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 30th was at 287,223. This is down 14,816 from the previous week’s revised insured unemployment number of 302,039 for the week ended October 23rd, a 5% 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:

• Retail Trade: 1,977 less new claims (a 58% decrease since last week).
• Accommodation and Food Services: 3,101 less new claims (a 39% decrease since last week).
• Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services: 1,688 less new claims (a 40% 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.

• Transportation and Warehousing: 405 more new claims (a 24% increase since last week)
• Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation: 73 more new claims (a 9% 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.