Georgia’s unemployment rate edged up to 5.4 percent in December from 5.3 percent in November, the state labor department said Thursday.
The state added 5,900 jobs during the month, just slightly less than average for a December.
The mixed December message capped a year of solid job growth and a surge in the number of people in the labor market. But hiring has not quite kept up with the pace at which new jobseekers entered the search.
The unemployment rate, which is based on the number of people with jobs and those seeking one, went up mainly because more people were looking for work.
“Jobseekers continue to join the labor force amid a growing level of confidence that they’ll be able to get a job,” state labor commissioner Mark Butler said.
Labor force participation, a measure showing the proportion of people working or seeking jobs, had fallen after the recession to decades-low levels, spurring arguments about whether the unemployment rate understated the pain that was still rampant.
In recent months, the participation rate has risen. Now, it is higher than it’s been since early 2014, Butler said.
Some of growth among jobseekers comes from people moving to Georgia, while some reflects previously discouraged workers returning to the job search, he said.
An analysis Thursday by Wells Fargo economists said corporate relocations fueled an economy that in 2016 “appears to have kicked up a notch.”
The strongest hiring in December came in business and professional services, a category that typically includes the kind of headquarter that have come to – or expanded in – metro Atlanta in recent years, Wells Fargo economists wrote.
Expansion also came in logistics – known as trade, transportation and warehousing – and government.
There were losses in construction and manufacturing, sectors that typically shrink in December. But there were also jobs shed in financial services and in the federal government.
Georgia’s economy has come a long way from the double-digit unemployment rates of 2009-11. But roughly 270,000 Georgians are officially unemployed and 30 percent of them have been looking for at least six months. While those levels are troubling, they are vast improvements over the deep recession and the sluggish recovery that followed.
A year ago, the jobless rate was 5.5 percent, so over the year rate barely budged. But 209,000 people entered the workforce during the year, including 22,420 during December – more than 10 times the usual increase during the month.
That seems to support the idea that people, whether already in Georgia or moving into the state, see brighter job prospects.
Georgia added 110,900 new residents last year, more than half of them people moving from elsewhere, Wells Fargo said.
The state has about 388,000 manufacturing jobs, far less than a decade or two ago, but the stage has been set for a resurgence, said Mike Grundmann, director for Automotive, Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing at the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
For example, a tire-maker in Troup County — Qingdao Sentury Tire — will add more than 1,000 jobs in a new, $530 million plant over the next 18 months, he said.
“A lot of them are high skill jobs. Tire manufacturing today is highly automated.”
A number of recent announcements promise expansions or new plants, many of them for suppliers who will make parts for large auto manufacturers in the southeast, he said.
Georgia now has 23,974 jobs in the auto sector – a fraction of the economy, but one that is growing, Grundmann said.
“Right now, the job growth is strong in the automotive sector and will continue to be strong for some time.”
AUTO SECTOR JOBS IN GEORGIA
Team Assemblers — 8,108
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers — 1,045
First-Line Supervisors of Production Workers — 1,012
Laborers and Freight, Material Movers — 775
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers — 656
Machinists — 548
Industrial Engineers — 399
Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators — 417
Maintenance and Repair Workers — 397
Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters — 439
Industrial Machinery Mechanics — 337
Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters — 369
Production Workers, All Others — 360
General and Operations Managers — 323
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks — 309
Source: Georgia Department of Economic Development
ANNUAL JOB GAINS OR LOSSES
12 months ended in December
2007 — Up 26,500
2008 — Down 140,400
2009 — Down 184,600
2010 — Up 30,600
2011 — Up 39,600
2012 — Up 69,100
2013 — Up 89,200
2014 — Up 137,600
2015 — Up 118,700
2016 — Up 103,300
Source: Georgia Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
JOB CHANGE IN DECEMBER
2006 — Up 4,200
2007 — Up 2,100
2008 — Down 19,900
2009 — Down 4,600
2010 — Up 2,200
2011 — Down 900
2012 — Up 3,900
2013 — Up 10,300
2014 — Up 15,300
2015 — Up 5,900
2016 — Up 5,900
Georgia Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
DECEMBER JOBLESS RATES
Percentage of workforce out of work and looking for a job
2006 — 4.4
2007 — 5.1
2008 — 8.4
2009 — 10.5
2010 — 10.5
2011 — 9.6
2012 — 8.6
2013 — 7.5
2014 — 6.4
2015 — 5.5
2016 — 5.4
Source: Georgia Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
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