Highest state unemployment rates
Mississippi: 7.3 percent
Georgia: 7.2 percent
California: 7.2 percent
Rhode Island: 7.1 percent
Nevada: 6.9 percent
Lowest state unemployment rates
North Dakota: 2.7 percent
Nebraska: 3.1 percent
South Dakota: 3.3 percent
Utah: 3.6 percent
Minnesota: 3.7 percent
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Georgia no longer has the nation’s highest unemployment rate.
Mississippi (7.3 percent) edged past Georgia and California (both 7.2 percent) last month to regain the unwanted designation as the worst place in the country for job seekers, according to information released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Georgia held the title for three months, up through October, and gladly relinquished the crown. A healthy drop in Georgia’s jobless rate from October to November — 7.6 percent to 7.2 percent — sealed the No. 2 deal.
“That’s the largest over-the-month drop we have seen in Georgia going all the way back to 1976,” said Mark Butler, the state’s labor commissioner.
The state has added nearly 100,000 jobs the last year, yet remains about 115,000 jobs shy of its pre-recession peak. Hiring has been robust in construction, trucking, warehousing, movie-making, accounting and temp services, though good wages and 40-hour work weeks don’t always follow.
Max Booz just lost a $14.90 an hour temp job working as an automotive technician in Gwinnett County. He was drawn to Atlanta 15 months ago by its go-go growth reputation. He’s living proof, though, of Georgia’s higher-than-most jobless rankings.
“Georgia is a celebrated state and it has so much industry. It has all the corporate headquarters,” said Booz, 39, applying Wednesday for unemployment benefits. “But the longer I live here, the more I realize exactly why (unemployment) is so high.
“Employers are trying to save money. They only hire a few people and they have the right to fire whenever they want. And they’re making millions of dollars in profits.”
The BLS reported that unemployment levels dropped in 41 states and the District of Columbia (7.4 percent) last month and rose in three. California gained almost as many jobs in November, 90,100, as Georgia gained did the last year.
Georgia’s neighbors largely out-perform the Peach State on employment: Alabama (6 percent); Florida (5.8 percent); Tennessee (6.8 percent), South Carolina (6.7 percent); and North Carolina (5.8 percent).
The national jobless rate is 5.8 percent.
