Area jobless rate doubles in 1 year

Metro Atlanta’s unemployment rate has taken another leap upward, hitting 9.3 percent in February, the state Labor Department announced Thursday.

That is more than double the 4.1 percent jobless rate for the same month a year earlier. It was also a large step up from January’s revised rate of 8.6 percent —- though less than the full percentage point increase from December to January.

“The latest local unemployment rates reflect the severity of the ongoing recession in Georgia,” said Michael Thurmond, state labor commissioner.

Metro Atlanta’s official jobless rate now matches the state overall —- but most of Georgia is seeing a bleaker picture: Of the state’s 159 counties, 87 reported unemployment of 10 percent or more, while 32 others had at least 9 percent joblessness.

“That is Depression-era unemployment,” Thurmond said.

Among metro areas in the state, the worst job market is around Dalton, where the unemployment rate rose to 12.9 percent in February, up from 11.9 percent the month before.

A year ago, Dalton unemployment was at 6.1 percent.

Georgia has taken a pounding in this recession, with the state unemployment rate floating above the national rate for more than a year. In February, the U.S. jobless rate was 8.1 percent.

Last week, an estimated 652,000 Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits, up 8,000 from the previous week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. More than 5.6 million people were collecting those benefits.

The official unemployment rate does not count people who are part-timers or too discouraged to look for a job.

And less than half of the officially jobless receive unemployment checks from the state.

February’s rates for both the state and metro Atlanta are the highest since the measure was standardized in the mid-1970s.

Unemployment for Georgia now seems bound to hit double digits in either April or even this month, based on a look at the number of people filing new unemployment claims, Thurmond said. “There has been no retreat. It is unabated.”

 JEMAL R. BRINSON / Staff 
METRO ATLANTA UNEMPLOYMENT RATES 
Job cuts that started in construction and real estate have spilled into nearly all other sectors. Officials expect the rate to keep rising. 
Graph tracks unemployment rates from Feb. 2008 to Feb. 2009. 
Feb. 2008: 5.2% 
Feb. 2009: 9.3%
Source: Georgia Department of Labor