Georgia’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.8 percent in September, the state labor department said Thursday.
The rate has improved from 6.9 percent in September of last year and has fallen from a recession high of 10.5 percent. It had been above 6 percent from May of 2008 until August. Now, it’s two months in a row below 6 percent – and that is good.
But Georgia’s unemployment rate is still above the national average and it has been since October 2007.
Here’s what is going on:
— Employers are hiring more workers. The number of jobs grew by 9,100 during the month, totaling 4,269,400 in the state.
— More than half the job growth was in government, especially the schools, but also health services. There was also hiring in manufacturing, as well as in some other sectors.
— There were some job losses in professional and business services, as well as the financial sector.
— Employers laid off slightly more people during the month. But compared to a year ago, there was a 10.8 percent drop in first-time claims for unemployment benefits.
— Over the past year, the state has added 84,200 jobs. That brought the unemployment rate down from 6.9 percent in September of last year. But Georgia’s rate is still considerably higher than the 5.1 percent national average.
A concern: the pace of job growth has slowed from a year ago.
A puzzle: the number of people actually in the workforce went down in September. The question is, how many retired, how many went back to school and how many got discouraged from the job search and simply gave up?
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