The unemployment rate went down in June from new highs following shutdowns in March that caused the rate to jump, but it hasn’t settled back to previous record lows from late last year and at the start of 2020.

The Georgia Department of Labor reported the rate fell to 7.1% for the month of June in preliminary numbers, with 1,262 people filing during the month out of the 17,857 people who were listed in the workforce during the month. That put the number of people currently employed at 16,595 people in the area.

Compared to the past month, the rate has thus far being reported as a 1.9% decrease from the 9.0 rate that was seen in May. The number of people in the workforce stood at 17,976 in May, with 1,617 people claiming in the month previous that they were without a job.

The rate is way above the low figures in June 2019, which just over a year ago was down to 3.9% at that time, with 18,415 people available to work and of them only 718 people reported as without a job.

Unemployment around the area was still coming down from shutdown levels in the spring. In Paulding County, the rate came down to 6.9% for the preliminary numbers in June, down 1% over the past month. Bartow came down to 7.3% after a 9.4% seen in May, Floyd came down to 7% in June compared to the 8.9% in May and 6.8% in Haralson compared to the 8.9% from the month previous.

Georgia’s unemployment rate was reported at 7.6% according to the Georgia Department of Labor, compared to the 11.1% that the national rate sat as of July 30 of figures posted on GDOL website.

Last week, the state reported that more than $1 billion in unemployment benefits were distributed in a week, and was well more than the $922 million paid out in the past three years combined.

National statistics were reported in news outlets that the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic is deep as the United States reported the largest drop in the Gross Domestic Product since recording began, a 9.5% decrease that has according to the New York Times eaten up five years of economic growth overall.