Metro Atlanta’s jobless rate dropped significantly last month, outpacing the rest of the state on the strength of growth in sectors such as healthcare, technology and logistics.
Unemployment in the region fell from 8.0 to 7.3 percent, as the ranks of jobless shrank, the numbers of employed rose and the size of the workforce decreased. The drop came after four consecutive months of rising jobless rates.
The number of people officially counted as unemployed dropped by 19,374 in September, the state Department of Labor announced Thursday.
Most sectors of the economy are growing, said Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Growth at the University of Georgia.
“There are very few bad performers. And generally, metro Atlanta is creating most of the new jobs in the state.”
Atlanta represents about 60 percent of the state’s jobs, but about 75 percent of job growth, he said.
It also helped a bit that the data was not adjusted to account for seasonal patterns — a change that would have likely meant a slightly higher rate.
The jobless rate has lately become fodder in the battle for governor, with the incumbent and challenger arguing about why Georgia has the nation’s worst unemployment rate.
Thursday’s release of metro Atlanta numbers prompted Carter to decry the economic situation.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable to continue having such a high unemployment rate,” he said via email. “Gov. Deal has driven Georgia to the very bottom. By his own words, he’s rejecting facts instead of accepting responsibility for this crisis.”
Deal has maintained that the rate has been “an outlier” in an otherwise improving economy.
In an email, campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Talaber wrote that the governor’s policies have helped add nearly 300,000 new jobs. “Since 2011, unemployment has dropped by almost 100,000 people. From 2011 to 2013, we’ve seen a population growth of more than 178,000.”
Thursday’s report showed Atlanta’s jobless number significantly below the state’s rate of 7.9 percent rate, although still far above the national rate of 5.9 percent.
One caution: the metro unemployment rate is not adjusted to account for seasonal trends, which would likely mean a slightly higher rate.
Even at its best, the jobless rate paints with a broad brush. Other numbers etch a somewhat different picture.
For example, metro Atlanta lost 4,000 jobs in September.
Roughly 218,000 people in the region are jobless and actively hunting for work, far below recession levels, but up sharply from the 178,000 who were unemployed in April.
So while the Atlanta economy has added gained 51,900 jobs in the past 12 months, that is not enough to soak up the jobseekers – many of them out of work a year or more, said Alfred Smith, co-author of “HIRED! Paths to Employment in the Social Media Era.”
The struggle to recover from the 2007-09 recession has taken much longer than the downturn itself.
The job losses triggered in the recession have yet to be replaced. Despite four years of job growth, metro Atlanta employment is still about 115,000 below the level of late 2007.
But the economy continues to signal improvement, however halting.
For instance, demand has accelerated for “high-end” technical experts, a precursor to more general growth, according to Jim McNabb, founder and president of Staffing Technologies, Alpharetta-based placement firm.
“We have had a 28 percent increase since Jan. 1,” he said. “We are expecting a big 2015.”
Jim Link, Atlanta-based chief human resources officer for Randstad North America, said there is strong demand for some highly skilled blue-collar jobs like handling logistics and machinists who run manufacturing assembly lines.
The very hottest jobs are at the intersection of heathcare and technology, he said. “Those people can name their own price.”
Andy Decker, senior regional president in Atlanta at staffing firm Robert Half, said the improvement he sees is broad. “Accounting, finance, legal, technical – in some places there are actually shortages of skilled people.”
That has translated to good news for at least some long-term jobseekers.
Todd Darby, 51, of Milton was out of work for more than a year and a half. He became creative about his job search, producing a brochure that gave prospective employers his “action plans” for his first 30 days, 60 days and 90 days on the job.
“In the spring I had three promising opportunities and one eventually came through,” he said. A St. Louis recycling company created a position for him.
The business environment is mixed, according to a survey released this week by American Express: 37 percent say they are planning to hire, up slightly from last year. Roughly 44 percent say they will either stand pat or cut positions, down from 50 percent a year ago.
While hiring may be moving at a modest clip, fewer people are getting laid off.
September saw 14,232 new claims for unemployment insurance, a 4 percent decline from August and a drop of 14.9 percent from September 2013.
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