Metro Atlanta accounts for nearly 60% of Ga. jobless

By Michael E. Kanell

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The unemployment rate in metro Atlanta last month hit 10.7 percent, ticking up from a revised 10.6 percent in June, the state Labor Department reported Thursday.

Although monthly variations are unpredictable, the rate is likely to rise still more before it falls, since joblessness typically climbs at least until the end of recession and — in the previous two downturns — for many months afterward.

While some economists say the recession might have ended, virtually none say the layoffs are over and the urge to hire is starting.

Moreover, the driving forces of Atlanta employment remain weak or worse. Jobs are still being lost in residential real estate, commercial construction, hospitality and transportation-related jobs.

In metro Atlanta, an estimated 288,561 people are officially unemployed — up 60 percent in the past year. Not counted in that group is anyone who is working part-time, gone back to school or who has simply give up looking for a job.

Atlanta accounts for nearly 60 percent of the jobless, and a similar share of the 199,400 jobs lost in Georgia during the past 12 months, the Labor Department said.

Among metro areas, Atlanta is not close to having the worst labor imbalance, however: Dalton’s jobless rate rose to 13.2 percent in July. In contrast, the state’s least-bad job market was in Warner Robins, where July unemployment was 7.6 percent. Among counties, Oconee had the lowest rate, 6.5 percent. The highest rate was a Depression-like 21.7 percent in Jenkins County.

Metro Atlanta has been running above the state rate, which last month was 10.3 percent. And Georgia has, in turn, been above the national average, which was 9.4 percent in July.