Georgia jobless rates in August
Percent of workforce out of work and looking for a job
2007, 4.7
2008, 6.5
2009, 10.4
2010, 10.3
2011, 10.1
2012, 8.8
2013, 7.9
2014, 7.0
2015, 5.6
2016, 4.9
Sources: Georgia Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
A year of job growth
2015
Aug, 13,000
Sept., 1,500
Oct., 28,500
Nov., 11,000
Dec., 5,900
2016
Jan., 100
Feb., 16,300
March, 14,200
April, 9,600
May, 5,900
June, 7,900
July, 2,300
Aug., 7,500
Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Georgia Department of Labor
Georgia’s unemployment rate edged down to 4.9 percent in August, matching the national average for the first time since 2007, just before the Great Recession.
The rate dipped from 5.0 percent in July as the economy added 7,500 jobs, the state labor department said Thursday.
Mark Butler, the state’s labor commissioner, noted the years spent chasing the national rate. Georgia’s has been higher throughout the recession and recovery.
“When we look back to that time, we see that our job market has made significant improvements, not only as far as the rate is concerned, but we also have more jobs and more people employed than ever before.”
Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo, in an internet post called the August rate “another key milestone. The last time Georgia’s jobless rate was below the national rate was July, 2007.”
Still, nearly 242,000 are still unemployed. That is down 7 percent this year, but a historically high share of the unemployed have been looking for more than six months. And anyone not actively looking for work is not officially counted as unemployed.
Moreover, inflation-adjusted household income in Georgia is down by more than in any state except Nevada since 2008, according to a report Thursday in The Wall Street Journal, which cited Census data. That raises questions about the quality of the state’s job growth. According to the report, Georgia’s median real household income fell 8.5 percent from 2008 through 2015, vs. a national average of 2.6 percent.
A separate Census report this week showed strong gains nationally in the most recent one-year period, with Georgia notching 3.8 percent median household income growth from 2014 to 2015. Metro Atlanta’s growth was stronger, at 7.1 percent.
Much of Georgia’s job growth has come in service sectors and warehousing, as well as leisure and hospitality. However, metro Atlanta has also seen a flurry of tech-related growth and a construction rebound.
Georgia’s economic growth once perennially outstripped the nation’s and its jobless rate almost always hovered below the U.S. average. But Georgia was hit harder than most states by the housing crisis, suffering pain that is still visible in some neighborhoods.
In July 2007, the Georgia rate was 4.6 percent and the U.S. rate was 4.7 percent. As recession began, layoffs were fiercer in Georgia and the rate rose faster, cresting at 10.5 percent.
August, of course, is just one month. The data can be erratic and tough to decipher. On one hand, August’s numbers reflect the annual return of teachers, bus drivers and other workers to schools. On the other hand, it also reflects the late-summer slackness in some businesses.
Georgia’s longer term trend has been solidly positive, although job growth has slowed in the past two years.
According to Thursday’s monthly report, the state has added 104,000 jobs since August of 2015, when the unemployment rate was 5.6 percent. In those 12 months, the corporate sector has added about 42,000 jobs in Georgia, according to the government.
Waveguide Consulting, of Decatur, has grown this year from 68 to 81 employees, and expects to grow by about one-third next year, according to CEO Scott Walker
The company offers design and management services on acoustics, audio and technology issues. Clients are mostly corporate – like Mercedes Benz, which recently moved its U.S. headquarters to metro Atlanta – and academic, like Emory University. Employees typically have a mix of skills, often combining tech savvy with music experience.
“There’s a whole re-invention of the workplace that is happening,” Walker said.
Ian Watson, CEO of Bibby Financial Services North America, is likewise upbeat – at least for his business as a provider of finance to companies that have trouble getting bank loans.
Bibby has 28 employees in its Kennesaw headquarters and is thinking of moving its finance department from Chicago. The company is looking for several executives, including a chief financial officer and a head of human resources.
But the corporate outlook doesn’t mesh with the macro view, Watson said.
“We are not optimistic about the overall economy,” he said. “We expect the world economy to tighten. And we think that next tightening is 18 months or two years away.”
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