Two Georgia metro areas, Dalton in the northwest and Augusta in the east, led the nation in job losses in the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Dalton, which bills itself as the Carpet Capital of the World, lost 4,600 jobs between June 2011 and June 2012. The 6.9 percent drop in the region's employment base was unmatched by the 371 other municipalities tracked.
About 4,300 jobs also disappeared in the Augusta-Richmond County area during that period, the BLS reported.
The statistics underscore Georgia's inconsistent economic recovery since the recession hit in late 2008, costing the state hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Statewide, 45,200 jobs were created between June 2011 and June 2012. Metro Atlanta accounted for three-fourths of them.
The recession and housing bust hit hard the bedrock manufacturing industries in Dalton and Augusta. However, most of the jobs lost over the last year were in related services. Dalton, for example, shed 4,100 warehouse, trucking and fork-lift jobs. The area's unemployment rate remains a Georgia-leading 12.3 percent.
"If you don't manufacture carpet, then nobody has a trucking job, or puts tires on those trucks, or welds their trailers," said Danny Cope, who runs the Georgia Department of Labor office in Dalton. "Then people won't go out to eat because they don't have the money. So people won't have jobs at restaurants. It's all related."
Cope's office lists 127 job openings - home health care nurses, inventory specialists, truck drivers. That's about 15 more than the previous month. Elyse Cochran, executive director of economic development for Dalton and Whitfield County, noted that major retailers like Kohl's, Petco and Academy Sports have opened or plan to open stores in town.
"Do we as a community believe the carpet industry will ever be what it was? Absolutely not," Cochran said. "But we see the glass as half full when others see it as half empty."
