JOBLESS IN JUNE
Georgia’s unemployment rate for the month, over the past decade
2006, 4.8
2007, 4.5
2008, 6.1
2009, 10.2
2010, 10.2
2011, 10.1
2012, 9.1
2013, 8.1
2014, 7.2
2015, 5.8
2016, 5.1
Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Georgia Department of Labor
Georgia’s unemployment rate fell in June as the economy added jobs at a solid pace, the state labor department said Thursday.
With nearly all sectors hiring, about 11,400 jobs were added during the month, and the jobless rate slipped from 5.2 percent in May to 5.1 percent.
“It’s almost all good news,” said Mark Butler, Georgia’s labor commissioner. “We are doing better than the national average and that’s a good indicator of how strong our job growth is right now in Georgia.”
During the previous three Junes, job growth averaged 3,400.
June is a month in which seasonal patterns matter. The pool of unemployed is sometimes flooded by school graduates and school workers laid off for the summer. Georgia’s data is adjusted for those patterns.
The broader trajectory in Georgia has been positive: Over the last 12 months, the state has added 123,200 jobs while layoffs apparently dropped, based on a 16 percent decline in new claims for unemployment insurance.
The Georgia jobless rate is down from 5.8 percent in June of last year. Steady growth in the labor force — workers plus those actively seeking jobs — suggests that is on the strength of job creation and not because discouraged workers are giving up on the job search.
Yet the recession’s damage is evident.
The number of people working continues to grow, although not as fast as the number of jobs – an indication that many people are working more than one job.
And the labor force is still 96,630 below its peak. The number of employed Georgians, too, is still lower than it was eight years ago.
More troubling, a large share of the jobless have been looking for a long time. More than 91,000 of the unemployed – 37 percent – have been seeking work for more than six months, according to the state Labor Department.
Sandra Lilly of Peachtree Corners is approaching that unhappy marker.
Laid off after 13 years with a company that made cuts after a merger, Lilly said she has sent out at least six resumes every working day since mid-February. “I am in better shape than a lot of people. I’m going to be in big trouble when the severance pay runs out.”
She has little financial cushion because she spent a big chunk of her savings on care for her dying husband. “What the 2008 crash didn’t take care of, the cancer did.”
She thinks she has gotten close to a new job, but not quite closed the deal.
Like many of the long-term unemployed, she is older – 63 – and suspects that has something to do with the hesitation of potential employers to take her on.
“They can’t ask you your age, but when they ask you when you graduated high school, they have a pretty good idea.”
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