Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that Albany saw a decrease in its unemployment rate in January.

“In January we saw the rate drop in every MSA but one,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “Starting the year off strong with such a positive indicator is promising, especially as we learn to adapt to this everchanging workforce due to COVID.”

In Albany, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.8 percentage points in January, reaching 6.5 percent. A year ago, the rate was 4.3 percent.

The labor force decreased in Albany by 848 and ended the month with 65,956. That number is down 2,154 when compared to January of 2020.

Albany finished the month with 61,649 employed residents.  That number decreased by 309 over the month and is down by 3,506 when compared to the same time a year ago.

Albany ended January with 58,500 jobs. That number decreased by 1,900 from December to January but decreased by 4,500 when compared to this time last year.

The number of unemployment claims went up by 20 percent in Albany. When compared to last January, claims were up by about 258 percent.

Employ Georgia, the GDOL’s online job listing service at employgeorgia.com showed about 1,097 active job postings in metro Albany for January.