Timothy Ewing, a Regional Economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Atlanta Regional Office gave an excellent presentation at the July Intown Meeting. The topics covered were Unemployment, Job Openings and Labor Turnover and Employment/Hiring. Companies are hiring, but because the unemployment rate is low, there are now more job openings than people looking for work. The quit rate is also higher; people can find better and higher paying jobs with the vacancies. Construction has had the highest increase in job openings than any other sector. For Georgia and Atlanta, unemployment levels been declining and employment levels are increasing; Atlanta is flattening out about 3 million jobs. 60% of entire Georgia labor force is in metro Atlanta (28 counties). In Georgia, overall there are 1.2 job openings for every one person unemployed.