Five things to know about Georgia’s jobless rate
This year got off on a modest, but hopeful start as the state’s economy added just 100 jobs, but the unemployment rate dipped from 5.5 percent to 5.4 percent, the state Labor Department announced this morning.
The jobless rate has improved from 6.3 percent a year ago.
And during the past year, the state has added 113,100 jobs – strong performance, although not quite as robust as the year before.
January is a somewhat unpredictable month. Last year, the state economy lost 6,100 jobs during January. The year before, it gained 10,200.
In 2009, during the depth of the recession, Georgia lost 28,400 jobs in January – not only the worst January, but the worst single month the state’s economy has suffered in the past decade.
This January, experts and consumers alike felt some trepidation: Wall Street had hit a rough patch at the end of 2015 and stock values were dropping. Meanwhile, the woes of Europe and the worries of China raised fears of a global malaise.
So far, Georgia is not seeing those fears pan out.
Here’s what is going on:
— Employers are not hiring many workers, but they’re anxious to shed them either. The number of jobs was nearly flat, up 100.
— Layoffs were up 5 percent during the month, mostly because of season workers losing jobs. Compared to a year ago, there was a 13 percent drop in first-time claims for unemployment benefits.
— The number of people with jobs was up 18,328 during January – a sign of some people taking part-time work.
—There has been job growth in a range of sectors, including corporate work, trade, transportation and warehousing and government.
— Over the past year, the state has added 113,100 jobs. That brought the unemployment rate down. But Georgia’s rate is still higher than the 4.9 percent national average.
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