On the surface, sustained low unemployment rates appear to be a good thing. In the past year, unemployment claims have been below 300,000, which hasn’t happened in more than 40 years.
In a March 3, 2016, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, Georgia labor commissioner Mark Butler said, “Georgia employers continue to add jobs at a stronger pace than the national over-the-year job growth rate.” The state saw job growth in nine of the eleven major job sectors that are tracked.
For employers, low unemployment means that employees and potential employees can afford to be more discriminating in the jobs they choose to stick with and those they are looking for. During these times of low unemployment, people may “job hop” for better opportunities that may open up. For employers, this translates into paying higher wages to attract and retain employees as well as putting programs in place that create a corporate culture and work environment that current employees don’t want to leave and job candidates want to be a part of.