Unemployment rate for Georgia (seasonally adjusted)
March 2013 – 8.4 percent
Feb. –8.6 percent
Jan. – 8.7 percent
Dec. – 8.7 percent
Nov. – 8.7 percent
Oct. – 8.8 percent
Sept. – 8.9 percent
Aug. – 9.0 percent
July – 9.1 percent
June – 9.1 percent
May – 9.1 percent
April – 9.1 percent
March 2012 – 9.1 percent
Georgia’s unemployment rate ticked down in March amid a burst of job growth, but the economic recovery remains slow and the job market balky.
The March jobless rate fell to 8.4 percent from 8.6 percent in February, the state reported. The rate was 9.1 percent in March 2012.
New jobs in transportation, warehousing, tourism and local government contributed, Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said, adding that Thursday’s report showed “one of the best job growth numbers we’ve had in March for almost a decade.”
Another factor, however, was a drop of 18,000 in the state’s labor force, an indication some jobseekers have dropped out of the market.
Georgia still has about 175,000 fewer jobs than before the recession started in late 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the past 12 months, Georgia has added about 75,500 jobs, an average of about 6,300 a month. Adjusted for seasonal patterns, the March number was about twice that , said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University.
But Dhawan cautioned against seeing the report as a sign the job market is accelerating.
“It’s a good number, but if job growth is so solid, why are state tax collections rising so slowly?” he said.
Dhawan noted the data was collected before the federal government’s sequestration cuts and this week’s terror bombing in Boston. The former could mean job cuts around military bases and universities. The latter could chill travel and tourism – a crucial source of income for metro Atlanta, Dhawan said.
“This is all in the rear-view mirror. The headwinds for the economy are global and political and unfortunately, Georgia has no antidote,” he said.
During the past five years, the jobless rate here has been higher than the national average all but two months. The U.S. rate in March was 8.1 percent, dropping to 7.6 percent in April.
The weak job market has been especially hard on the long-term unemployed. About 181,000 Georgians have been out of work six months or more, about 45 percent of all jobless, the state said.
That number declined in March for the 11th consecutive month, but those workers are still at a disadvantage, said Andy Decker, senior regional vice president in Atlanta for Robert Half International, a huge staffing company.
Employers often use the duration of joblessness to make initial cuts among applicants, he said. “I know someone who posted a part-time receptionists job and got 1,500 resumes. They have to find a way to get that stack down to 50.”
For the long-term unemployed, the key is to keep using and honing skills – even if not at a paying job, he said. “It could be for a non-profit or for the clergy. You have got to make that job gap disappear.”
About the Author
