General

Initial Unemployment Claims

Preliminary initial unemployment claims for the week ended September 18th were 48,472, which is up 6,387 claims, or 15%, from the revised initial unemployment claims number of 42,085 for the previous week, ending September 11th.

This is the first time that weekly initial unemployment claims in Georgia have have risen from the previous week since the week ended July 11th, when the state of Georgia saw 138,452 weekly claims.

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 September 11th was at 536,866. This is up 38,053 from the previous week’s revised insured unemployment number of 498,813 for the week ended September 4th, an 8% increase.

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:

• Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation: 308 less new claims, -21% from last week
• Finance and Insurance 30 less new claims, -9% from last week

Most Declining Industries this Week

The industries with the largest increases in weekly initial unemployment claims are said to be declining. The following are the most declined since last week:

• Transportation and Warehousing: 1,510 more new claims, 105% increase since last week
• Retail Trade: 1,627 more new claims, 55% increase since last week
• Accommodation and Food Services: 1,942 more new claims, 17% increase since last week

These increases in claims are significantly higher than what has been seen for the past several weeks.