Georgia’s unemployment rate dipped from 5.6 percent to 5.5 percent on modest job growth in December, the state labor department said Thursday.
The rate has improved from 6.6 percent in December 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, for five months in a row that rate has been below 6 percent.
The jobless rate has been steady or dropping every month since May. And perhaps that is becoming something of a habit?
That would be a nice trend.
More than six years after the official end of a painful recession, the job market is still on questionable ground in some ways – like the numbers of people who are still on the sidelines rather than working. And the more than 200,000 people who are jobless and searching for work.
Georgia’s unemployment rate has been above the national average since October 2007.
But some of the numbers sure look good.
Here’s what is going on:
— Employers are hiring more workers. The number of jobs grew by 3,300 during the month, totaling 4,317,600 in the state.
— There was job growth in professional and business services, construction and some other services.
— Employers laid off more people during the month — especially in the public sector. New initial claims for unemployment insurance rose 41.9 percent from November. But that is 16.7 percent lower than in December a year ago.
— Over the past year, the state has added more than 90,000 jobs. That brought the unemployment rate down from 6.6 percent in December of last year. But Georgia’s rate is still considerably higher than the 5.0 percent national average.
— In perhaps the best sign, the jobless rate has been dipping even while the number of people in the labor force has been going up. During December, the state’s labor force increased by 14,000. In the past year, the labor force has grown by 20,296.
One quibble: The pace of job growth has not been as good as the year before. Looking back at growth, 2014 was a better year than 2013, which was a better year than 2012, which was a better year than 2011, which was better than 2010, which was better than 2009.
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