The unemployment rate for the United States in June fell 2.2% to 11.1%. This is a steeper decline than the April to May drop of 1.4%, which shows that people are getting back to work at states’ economies open up. This number, however, does not take into account some recent business closures as coronavirus cases in some states are spiking. The state June unemployment rates are expected to be released on July 17th. Metropolitan area and county unemployment rates will be released on July 29th. 

Preliminary initial unemployment claims for the week ended June 27th were 115,750, which is down 9,975. This is the largest decrease in intial claims in the last few weeks. Preliminary continuing claims for the week ended June 20th were 655,582. This is down 14,153 from the previous week’s revised continuing claims number of 669,735 for the week ended June 13th. Since the week ended May 16th, the state of Georgia has seen a steady decline in intial unemployment claims. 

This week, the county unemployment rates were released for the month of May. The Metro Atlanta area and the coast saw pretty high unemployment rates, while South Georgia saw the lowest overall unemployment rates. The county with the highest unemployment rate was Clayton County at 14.10%, likely because it is home to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The heatmap below shows the unemployment rates across the state.

Sources:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor