A white-collar job candidate recently went to an executive search firm so fed up with his job that he was willing to take a $10,000 pay cut just to get out of the company.

Until he actually got the offer.

Then he got scared, said Brett Stevens, president and founder of the recruiting firm SearchLogix Group in Kennesaw. "Job candidates are staying with what they have because they are afraid of the unknown."

Each job candidate who scuttles back to where he started is a sign of fear that things will get even worse, Stevens said.

"I think people are afraid of being the new guy and getting whacked if things turn," he said.

Layoffs are on the rise. Last week, 404,000 people nationwide filed new claims for jobless insurance, up from 374,000 a month ago and 309,000 a year ago, the Employment Training Administration reported Thursday.

There were 29.4 percent more Georgians filing for unemployment insurance for the first time than a year earlier. Also in May, the state's jobless rate was 5.8 percent, up from 4.1 percent a year earlier.

In metro Atlanta, the unemployment rate in May was 5.5 percent, up from 4 percent a year earlier, according to the state Labor Department.

"I have seen a disproportionate number of people who had been involved in real estate," Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said. "Sales, banking, loan officers — there's been a collapse in the support system for the housing industry."

It takes longer than before for those laid off to find their next job, he said.

Economic growth has been slow, and hiring has been sluggish, even if layoffs have not been widespread. Now, oil and gasoline prices have soared to all-time records, further crimping companies' ability to spend on staffing.

Some firms fill openings, but not many are expanding, said Emily Carlson, Atlanta district manager for Randstad, the global staffing company. "I think people are being a little more careful."

Yet some sectors are doing well. Many call centers are shrinking — but not the call centers for agencies that help people with their debts, said Allison Gross, Atlanta-based vice president of Comforce, a national staffing company.

Skills in information technology are in short supply, she said: Systems architects, project managers, business process engineers can command six-figure salaries.

Web-based developers are likewise in demand, though not quite as well-paid, Gross said. "It is not as bad here in Atlanta — at least from our perspective."

Neither the national job market nor that of Atlanta has fallen as hard as he would expect in a full-fledged recession, said Kurt Karl, New York-based chief economist for Swiss Re, a global reinsurer.

"Most people have just stopped hiring," Karl said. "They are not laying off in a huge way."

And pockets of hot hiring remain.

"There are sectors that are rockin' — accounting and finance," said Elizabeth Gill, owner of the Buckhead franchise of staffing company Express Employment Professionals. Both growing and shrinking firms need number-crunchers to track financial transitions. "They need as many people as we can find for them."

Yet most job-seekers and companies seem to be struggling against a head wind, Gill said. "We are fighting a little harder just to get the business that we have. I have seen a change."