Activists call on Georgia Department of Labor to fix unemployment system

ATLANTA - Community leaders have called on the Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler to fix what they call a broken unemployment system.

In an effort to get more Georgians to re-join the workforce, Gov. Brian Kemp ended Georgia's participation in the federal government's $300 weekly additional unemployment benefit.  The federal government started the additional payments during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to help people who lost their jobs during the health crisis. 

Tuesday, a number of community groups and activists gathered outside the Georgia Department of Labor offices in Atlanta.

"The jobs that many were working before the pandemic were livable wages of $15 to $25 an hour. But these workers cannot go back to these jobs because they are still closed or they are hard to obtain again," one speaker said.

"Did you know that the average professional on a healthy economy takes 73 days to get employment when they are unemployed," another speaker said. "Two months makes a difference. Two months makes a difference."

A number of state lawmakers also wrote a letter to Commissioner Butler, condemning the move.

The governor said he believes that the benefit is keeping people from returning to the workforce.

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