Georgia’s economy added 9,100 jobs in September – many of them in education and healthcare – while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.8 percent, the state Labor Department announced Thursday.
The state added 84,200 jobs during the past 12 months. That was a drop from the two previous years, but still helped push the jobless rate down from 6.9 percent in September a year ago.
“We are seeing Georgia business continue to grow jobs,” Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said.
Layoffs rose slightly for the month, but they are down 10.8 percent from a year ago, he said. The year-to-year change “is the most important number when you take a look at the long-term picture.”
The strongest hiring came in state and local government, education and healthcare services, according to the labor department. About 2,100 jobs were also added in manufacturing, along with a smattering of jobs in other sectors.
The gains overshadowed losses in professional and business services and finance.
While solid, the pace of the hiring has been slower than the year before, when 136,700 jobs were added.
That surge of hiring peaked last winter. However, September was the third-strongest month so far this year.
Meanwhile, the August jobless rate, initially announced as 5.9 percent, was revised down a tenth of a point in Thursday’s report. So the September rate was flat, and marked the first time since spring 2008 that it had stayed below 6 percent for two months.
Still, Georgia’s unemployment rate is above the national average and has been since October 2007.
The report also added to the continuing puzzle of participation: where are the missing workers?
In general, stronger hiring tends to bring people into the job market. But there has been no wave of growth in the labor force since the 2007-09 recession.
Despite more than four years of steady hiring – along with population growth – there are 146,235 fewer people in the Georgia labor force than when the recession began, and 234,552 fewer than at the peak in mid-2008.
The labor force includes those with jobs and those looking for work. So the shrinkage is partly a result of older workers retiring, but Federal Reserve studies have concluded that retirements don’t account for most of the drop.
The rest of the decline is explained by people who have grown discouraged and given up searching – at least temporarily – in addition to people who have gone back to school and people are receiving disability payments.
From August to September, the state’s labor force dipped by 2,830 – the fourth straight monthly decline. Since May, the state labor force has fallen by more than 44,700.
