Georgia’s jobless rate ticked up in May, to 6.3 percent from 6.2 percent, as layoffs increased slightly and more people came into the work force looking for jobs.
Longer trends are still encouraging and the slight increase is in some ways a sign of optimism as discouraged workers return to the job search, said Mark Butler, state labor commissioner.
“Our labor force expanded for the 18th month in a row, and that’s probably the biggest factor in driving up the rate,” Butler said. “There’s not any reason for concern.”
The economy added 3,900 jobs during the month – a figure that would have been much stronger but for cuts in government jobs as schools closed for the summer.
“Matter of fact, when we take a look at the last three years, we actually almost doubled the amount of private sector job growth over the month,” Butler said.
A year ago, the state unemployment rate was 7.3 percent. Even after a year’s improvement, the current rate is well above the national rate of 5.5 percent.
Six years after the official end of recession, the Georgia economy is still working its way back toward many pre-recession markers. Unemployment, for one, was 5.1 percent. There were 100,570 more people in the state’s labor force, but fewer unemployed people.
The state now has more jobs than before the recession, but fewer people counted as working – because so many people have part-time or multiple jobs.
The continued difficulty some people have finding work prompted Fifth Third Bank to invite recent college graduates to compete for “coaching scholarships” with NextJob, a national company offering career counseling and coaching company. (Information: https://brandofyou.53.com/ ).
“Sometimes they are out of work, not because there isn’t a job, but because they don’t really know how to look for a job,” said Tara Orchard, a job and career coach for NextJob.
At the worst of the downturn, more than a half-million Georgians were officially unemployed – which means they had no job, but had been looking for work looking for work. Now, that figure has fallen to just under 300,000.
Roughly 40 percent of those people have been in the job hunt for at least six months – down from its peak, but still high by historical standards.
Growth in the past few years simply hasn’t been enough to make up the ground lost in the recession and its aftermath. But hiring has been strong and accelerating: during the past 12 months, the economy has added 114,900 jobs, according to the Department of Labor.
Sectors adding the most employees were professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, construction, transportation and warehousing.
The biggest loser last month was government, which shed 7,800 jobs.
Officials often revise rates when they have more information and April’s rate is a good example. The state’s jobless rate was originally reported as 6.3 percent, but was revised down to 6.2 percent.
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