For the first time in almost a year, Georgia’s monthly unemployment rate dropped in February, falling to 10.2 percent from 10.3, the state labor department reported Thursday.
Last April, the jobless rate dipped from 10.1 to 10 percent. Ever since, it’s inched up a bit or remained steady.
Georgia's rate has been in double digits since May 2009. It's also been above the national rate, currently 8.9 percent, for 41 straight months.
Still, Thursday's report brought a ray of optimism. Georgia added 25,100 jobs in February for a statewide total of 3.8 million non-agricultural payroll jobs.
“The slight increase in jobs in February gives me reason for cautious optimism,” Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a statement. “Also, I’m encouraged that we continue to see a reduction in the number of new layoffs.”
Job gains over the last year come from an array of industries. Car and airplane makers are hiring, as are trucking and air cargo companies.
Accountants are in demand. So are dry cleaners and entertainment/recreation workers. The military continues to hire. Temp agencies added 10,000 workers during the last year.
“The business for some of our clients, who went very lean for two years, is picking back up,” said Tennille Hall, a vice president with Accounting Principals, a hiring agency with offices in Buckhead and Alpharetta. “Their growth plans are very positive. We’ve been getting really good signs, and not just for the temp business. They’re hiring permanently and bringing back positions eliminated over the last two years.”
Hall’s company is placing college-educated professionals – accountants, financial officers, marketers – at positions that pay between $40,000 and $65,000.
Butler noted the February drop in initial claims for unemployment insurance, down 16 percent from a year earlier, as further evidence of a recovering economy.
He labeled as “troubling,” though, the continued difficulty the long-term unemployed face finding work. Roughly 263,200 Georgians had been without work for 27 weeks or longer – a 38 percent increase from the year before.
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