March 17, 2022–9:33 a.m.

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Rome recorded an unemployment rate of 3.3 percent, up six-tenths of a percent over the month. A year ago, the rate was 4.8 percent. Despite this, Rome saw a rise in the labor force in the month of January.

“Even though we continue to see Georgia’s workforce be successfully employed in record-breaking numbers, there is still much more work to do as we continue to see hundreds of thousands of jobs needed to be filled,” said Commissioner Mark Butler.

The labor force increased in Rome by 126 and ended the month with 44,127. That number is up 290 when compared to January of 2021.

Rome finished the month with 42,679 employed residents.  That number decreased by 123 over the month and is up by 964 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Rome ended January with 41,500 jobs. That number decreased by 500 from December to January and increased by 1,400 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims went up by 106 percent in Rome in January. When compared to last January, claims were down by about 80 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 559 active job postings in Rome for January.

Looking at surrounding counties:

Bartow County’s jobless rate was 3.2%, up from 2.5% the month before.

It was 4.8% in January of 2021.

Gordon County was at 2.9%, up from 2.4%.

The rate was 4.3% this time last year.

Chattooga County’s rate rose from 3.4% in December to 4.2% in January.

It was 6.8% in January of 2021.

Polk County was up from 2.7% to 3.3% over the month.

That is still down from the 4.8% reported this time last year.