In the past year, the Georgia economy added:
18,500 jobs in leisure and hospitality
14,000 adminsittration and support
13,300 in healthcare
11,300 in retail
9,900 in construction
9,500 in accounting and tax prep
8,600 in employment services
5,700 in financial services
5,300 in warehousing and transportation
Source: Georgia Department of Labor
Georgia economy’s job performance since 2005
2005 added 107,900
2006 added 73,500
2007 added 26,100
2008 lost -140,700
2009 lost -184,700
2010 added 32,300
2011 added 40,400
2012 added 69,400
2013* added 90,100
*Data preliminary
Source: Georgia Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Georgia economy’s job performance since 2005
2005 added 107,900
2006 added 73,500
2007 added 26,100
2008 lost -140,700
2009 lost -184,700
2010 added 32,300
2011 added 40,400
2012 added 69,400
2013* added 90,100
*Data preliminary
Source: Georgia Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
First the good news. And there’s plenty of it.
- Georgia in 2013 added 90,100 jobs, the strongest job growth in eight years, the state Department of Labor announced Thursday.
- The official unemployment rate slipped to 7.4 percent in December, dipping from 8.7 percent a year earlier.
- Hiring improved across nearly all sectors last year, including the long-suffering – and crucial – construction industry.
“Optimism for us is in that construction number – almost 10,000 more people working in construction,” said Andy Decker, senior regional vice president at staffing company Robert Half International.
There is likewise strong demand in accounting, finance, legal work and many technology jobs, he said. “The unemployment rate in those areas is mostly below 3 percent. Many of our clients say they can’t hire quickly enough to fill the jobs they have open.”
Now for the bad news.
Not every sector boasted a hiring hike. And the improvements in the job market haven’t extended to many long-time jobseekers and older workers.
The Georgia economy is roughly 80,000 jobs shy of its pre-recession peak. The only sectors that have passed that earlier peak are leisure and hospitality and education and health services.
Still the 350,000 Georgians unemployed and looking for work in December is the fewest since October 2008.
Denise “Cookie” Langster, 59, of Acworth, found a job after months of searching. She took a human resources position with a Buckhead insurance company.
“I am not making what I was making before,” she said. “But if I’m sitting at home doing nothing, it doesn’t much matter what I was making before. I love it here, and I’ll be here as long as they want me.”
The number of people in the workforce has fallen. Despite a growing population, the Georgia workforce last month was 116,573 smaller than when the recession began six years before, according to Labor Department data.
Even with that contraction, job growth has not kept up, so the odds are stacked against any one candidate for a job.
Employers say they don’t use screens like age or the length of time a candidate has been out of work. But many jobseekers say they suspect that employers are looking for ways to winnow down the pile.
Rhonda Willis, 50, has been receiving disability but wants to work. For two years, she’s been applying for jobs in human resources. She’s especially interested in government work, but she’s made little progress,
“I don’t think it’s my age,” she said. “I think it’s my disability. They don’t want to take a chance on me.”
An estimated 163,200 jobseekers in Georgia have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer. That is nearly 47 percent of the total jobless – down from a high of 56 percent three years ago, but still more than three times as high as before the recession, according to the Labor Department.
That means that, for a long-time jobseeker like Joe O’Brien of Snellville, the lower unemployment rate belies reality.
O’Brien, 54, was a test engineer for more than 17 years at the former Scientific Atlanta in Lawrenceville, which is now part of Cisco Systems. He left during downsizing in 2012 and has been looking for another job since then.
“I don’t know if I’ve given up, but it feels like this economy has given up on me,” he said.
He’s had interviews with some big name companies, but has thus far been unable to close the deal. Like many other older job-seekers, he wonders whether age plays a role, he said. “I’m not really sure (if age is a factor), but I will tell you this: In the last three or four interviews, everybody I met was a 20-something or a 30-something.”
For older workers, the job market casts an ominous shadow over home ownership, retirement and even self-image.
“This is not where I am supposed to be at this stage of my life,” said Beverly Hayes, a 58 year old from Woodstock who was laid off in 2008 and has mostly worked short-term jobs since.
Her savings are mostly spent, she said. “If I ever get a job, I will work until the day I die.”
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