Georgia jobless rate jumps to 9.3 percent

State and national jobs numbers issued Thursday were a combination of bad news and not-as-bad news.

Georgia’s jobless rate jumped to 9.3 percent in February, up from a revised 8.5 percent the previous month, the state Labor Department said Thursday.

BOB ANDRES / bandres@ajc.com

Ryan Hill, 24, from Acworth, fills out a new unemployment claim. He was laid off from a window warehouse last Friday. He said, “Business was just going down.” A steady flow of unemployed workers streamed through the Georgia Department of Labor Cobb/Cherokee unemployment office Thursday as state unemployment figures reached a record high.

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The state shed 189,800 jobs during the month, cutting the job base by 4.6 percent from February 2008, the agency said.

And yet, national jobless claims hinted at a possible bottom to the bad news: 646,000 laid-off people filed for unemployment benefits last week. That’s not good, but a month ago, that figure hit 670,000. It hasn’t fallen much, but it hasn’t returned to that peak.

Metro Atlanta accounted for the bulk of the state’s job losses, with the region’s payrolls shrinking by 111,300 jobs. On a percentage basis, the Dalton area in northwest Georgia saw the biggest decline in payrolls, losing 6,000 jobs, or 7.9 percent from a year ago.

The Labor Department said 445,498 unemployed Georgians are now seeking work, up 69 percent from a year ago.

The February unemployment rate is the state’s highest since rate-keeping was standardized by the federal government in 1976. February also marked the 16th straight month in which Georgia’s rate was above the national jobless rate, currently at 8.1 percent.

“Times are difficult, but not hopeless,” Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said in a press release. “I encourage all Georgians to keep the faith. Don’t give in, don’t give up, and don’t give out.”

The unemployment rate has risen steadily over the past year and especially since the fall. It was 5.4 percent at this time last year.

The Labor Department said 159,359 Georgians are currently getting unemployment insurance benefits.

February job losses came in manufacturing and construction, trade, transportation and warehousing, along with professional and business services, including temporary employment agencies, the Labor Department said.

It said jobs were added in educational and health services, state and local education, and with the federal government.

Thurmond said job seekers should expand their job searches, explore new training and educational opportunities and use the reemployment services at the department’s 53 career centers around the state.

National glimmer?

Nationally, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday that initial requests for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 646,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 658,000. That was better than analysts’ expectations.

But continuing claims jumped 185,000 to a seasonally adjusted 5.47 million, another record-high and more than the roughly 5.33 million that economists expected.

The four-week average of claims rose to 654,750, the highest since October 1982, when the economy was emerging from a steep recession, though the labor force has grown by about half since then.

Economists said the signs of life that have cropped up in other areas of the economy in the past week, such as upticks in retail sales and housing starts, aren’t yet apparent in the labor market.

“There is no sign of even a temporary easing in the downward pressure on employment,” Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a client note.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Here are February job loss figures and percentage declines from a year ago for Georgia metro areas:

Dalton — 6,000, 7.9 percent

Atlanta — 111,300, 4.6 percent

Warner Robins — 2,200, 3.8 percent

Gainesville — 2,700, 3.4 percent

Valdosta — 1,900, 3.3 percent

Albany — 2,100, 3.2 percent

Savannah — 4,900, 3.1 percent

Macon — 2,800, 2.8 percent

Augusta —- 4,800, 2.2 percent

Columbus — 2,700, 2.2 percent

Athens — 700, 0.8 percent